Excerpt from Cleveland.com
Retired Ohio public school teachers will receive a 3% cost-of-living adjustment later this year, the first increase since 2017.
The board of the State Teachers Retirement System, which goes by STRS and is pronounced “stirs,” approved the increase at its monthly meeting Thursday.
The raise will show up on retirees’ pension checks on their retirement anniversary date, starting on July 1, as the raise goes into effect for the fiscal year beginning then, STRS spokesman Nick Treneff said.
Included in the board’s resolution for the cost-of-living adjustment is a statement that it would consider additional increases in the future, no later than next spring, Treneff said.
The board was originally planning to consider a 2% increase. But the pension’s actuary said the fund could afford 3%. The board opted for the higher level due to higher inflation, as well as wanting to give retirees more because there’s no guarantee of yearly increases in the future, Treneff said.
Last, the resolution altered a previous change to pension eligibility. In 2012 the board implemented a policy that ratcheted up the minimum years of service and the age to be eligible for a pension so that by 2026, a teacher would have to have 35 years of service and be at least age 60 to retire.
