Nearly 32,000 Illinois government pensioners paid $100k-plus

State data shows 31,937 members of Illinois’ five pension systems collected $100,000 a year or more in retirement benefits during 2024. Some got over $500,000. See the full list below.

Nearly 32,000 retired Illinois government employees received a state pension worth $100,000 a year or more in 2024, according to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Analysis shows 31,937 of the five state pension systems’ 239,384 members qualified for the $100k pension club. Among them, seven collected over $500,000 a year from their state-funded retirement.

While $100,000-plus pensions accounted for just 13% of all annuitants in the five statewide pension systems, data shows they collected nearly one-third of the total $13.2 billion paid out to retired government workers last year.

Check out the table below to see the full list of state retirees who earned over $100,000 a year from their pension in 2024:

Your retirement is likely to look very different. The average American saved $609,230 by retirement age, according to the most recent data from 2022. They will average $22,344 a year from Social Security retirement benefits.

No wonder Illinois’ five statewide government pension systems are nearly $144 billion in the hole. And that might be a vast underestimate: ratings agencies have projected the pension debt at more than double the state’s estimate.

Illinois is home to the nation’s worst pension crisis. It cost each household $2,233 in 2023 – the most in the Midwest and $991 more than the typical American household paid for public employees’ retirements, according to census data.

Illinois’ state and local pension systems’ collective funding ratio of 51.6% was also the lowest in the nation. Experts warn pensions with funding ratios below 60% are deeply troubled and plans with funding ratios below 40% are likely past the point of no return.

Polling and municipal referendum results show a majority of Illinois voters want pension reform today to lower the state’s nation-leading tax burden. To do that, state lawmakers must put pension reform on a statewide ballot.

Previous analysis from 2022 showed changes such as setting a limit to how high a salary can go before pensions are increased, replacing compounding 3% annual raises with true cost-of-living increases and adjustments to realign benefits with historical inflation rates would have saved more than $50 billion by 2045. It would also get the state’s pensions to 100% funding to fully secure retirements.

Government workers aren’t to blame for taking part in a lucrative retirement system. State employees deserve to collect the pensions they have been promised.

But politicians trading generous pension benefits in return for support that neither the state nor Illinoisans can afford is the true threat. The long-term solvency of the pension systems upon which 239,384 Illinois annuitants rely is at risk.

Special-interest politics have created an unfair and unsustainable system that is hurting government’s ability to do its basic job. Illinoisans overwhelmingly are asking that it be fixed.