OTPP – Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan
Ontario
Full pension and early retirement
You get a full pension, with no reduction, at the first of these:
- Age 65
- 85 points
Points are your age plus your years of service.
- Earliest retirement
- Age 50
- Retiring earlier
- Reduced 2.5% a point short of 85 or 5% a year under 65, whichever is less
- Pension formula
- 1.55% of your average pay up to the CPP earnings limit (YMPE) and 2% above it, for each year of service
- Bridge benefit
- Until age 65, reduced with the pension if you retire early. Its share of the reduction stays on the pension after it ends
- Increases after you retire
- 100% of inflation
What retiring early costs: an example
Someone joins at 35, is paid $85,000 a year and works until each age below, so their years of service are their age less 35. Amounts are a year, before tax, in today's dollars.
| Retire at | Years of service | Reduction | Pension | Bridge to 65 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 15 | 50% | $8,100 | $4,700 |
| 51 | 16 | 45% | $10,000 | $5,000 |
| 52 | 17 | 40% | $12,000 | $5,300 |
| 53 | 18 | 35% | $14,300 | $5,600 |
| 54 | 19 | 30% | $16,700 | $5,900 |
| 55 | 20 | 25% | $19,300 | $6,200 |
| 56 | 21 | 20% | $22,000 | $6,500 |
| 57 | 22 | 15% | $24,900 | $6,800 |
| 58 | 23 | 10% | $28,000 | $7,200 |
| 59 | 24 | 5% | $31,300 | $7,500 |
| 60 | 25 | None | $34,700 | $7,800 |
Retiring at 50 instead of 60 costs twice: 10 fewer years of service, and the reduction on what is left. Early retirement reduction explains both.
What to copy from your paperwork
To use your own numbers in the income timeline:
Your annual statement gives the earliest date you can retire with no reduction if you keep working. OTPP's pension calculator, in your OTPP account, gives the pension for the dates you choose: enter the one for that date here, or several under 'The amounts my plan quotes'. If it lets you add pay raises, leave them at 0%: this tool takes the amounts as today's dollars. If it shows less from 65, that is the CPP adjustment: enter the pension from 65 here and the higher one until 65 below.
OTPP's own estimator: OTPP's pension calculator, in your OTPP account.
Where these rules come from
- OTPP, Schedule 1 to the Teachers' Pension Act, unofficial consolidation to March 1, 2023
- Types of pensions
- History of inflation increases
- For a deferred pension, 44(3a) and (3b): for a member who stops before being eligible to start a pension, the lesser of 5% for each year under 65 and 5% for each point short of 85, at the pension's start.
- Last reviewed October 22, 2026.
These rules are simplified. Your plan's own estimate is the one to rely on; see the disclaimer.