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Chicago City Wire

Thursday, July 3, 2025

Former state university employee Smith paid in $25K to pension fund, could collect $471K in retirement

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Former state university employee Bernita Smith, who retired in June 2016, saved $25,454 toward a pension over 12 years working for state universities, State Universities Retirement System of Illinois records show.

Over 30 years of retirement, Smith would collect as much as $470,876, according to a projection by Local Government Information Services (LGIS), which publishes Chicago City Wire.

The projection assumes Smith received $9,897 in the first year of retirement, then 3 percent annual increases thereafter, compounded.

After 3 years of retirement, Smith will have already received $30,591 in retirement benefits, or more than the sum total of the retiree's contributions to the state pension fund.

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