Pension payments to 21,170 retirees of the New York City Board of Education Retirement System (BERS) during fiscal year 2025 were added today to SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website. The data primarily cover school support staff and administrative personnel.
The BERS paid a total of $351 million in pension payments during FY2025, at an average of $16,614 for each retiree. 100 retirees received six-figure pension payments; seven retirees received more than $200,000.
The highest payment of $567, 425 went to Elizabeth Nieves, who retired from the Department of Education in 2006 with a service credit of 24.29 years. The next highest payments went to:
- Carmen Leon, Department of Education, $439,889;
- Ivy Richards, Department of Education, $402,536;
- Paulette Morrissette, Department of Education, $223,884;
- Elda Rodriguez, Department of Education, $219,954
In addition to regular pensions, the payments also include one-time lump payouts made during the fiscal year.
Newly retired members—those retiring between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and collecting their first full-year pension in FY2025—included 436 “full career” individuals with 20 or more years of service credit. The average “full career” new retiree pension was $33,713. Among them, seven received more than $100,000 in pensions.
The BERS data includes retirees from of the New York City Department of Education (DOE) who are not eligible to join the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS). This includes school lunch helpers, school nurses, school custodians, substitute teachers, and many other job titles. BERS also provides coverage to employees of the School Construction Authority, School Crossing Guards employed by the NYPD, certain charter school employees, and BERS employees.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
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