Average Final Salary (AFS)
The average of your highest 3 (Tier 1) or 5 (Tier 2) years of pay out of your last 10.
Handbook pp. 21-22More on this →These are the words you'll meet in RSA letters and on these pages. To put them to work, try the TRS of Alabama calculator, or start with Tier 1 or Tier 2 and the benefit formula.
Benefit factor
The percent of your average final salary you earn for each year of service: 2.0125% (Tier 1) or 1.65% (Tier 2).
Handbook pp. 21-22More on this →Creditable service
Your years and months of service credit: membership, prior, purchased and transferred service. No more than one year per July-June school year.
Handbook p. 9More on this →DROP
Deferred Retirement Option Plan: a Tier 1 program that let members keep working while their benefit built up in an account. Closed to new applications March 24, 2011.
Handbook p. 27More on this →Earnings limit
The most a TRS of Alabama retiree can earn in a calendar year from TRS of Alabama or ERS employers without losing benefits: $40,000 in 2026.
Postretirement Employment Restrictions 2026 (10-2025)More on this →ERS
Employees' Retirement System of Alabama, the RSA system for state and local government employees.
Handbook p. 6More on this →Maximum Monthly Benefit
The largest lifetime payment, with nothing paid to a survivor beyond the month of death.
Handbook p. 23More on this →MOS (Member Online Services, mso.rsa-al.gov)
RSA's member site for your statement and a benefit estimate calculator.
Handbook pp. 6, 21Option 2 and Option 3
Payment options that pay one beneficiary 100% (Option 2) or 50% (Option 3) of your reduced benefit for life after you die.
Handbook p. 23More on this →PEEHIP
Public Education Employees' Health Insurance Plan: health insurance for active and retired Alabama public education employees.
Handbook p. 35More on this →PLOP
Partial Lump Sum Option Plan, a one-time lump sum at retirement that lowers your monthly benefit.
Handbook p. 24More on this →RSA
The Retirement Systems of Alabama, which runs TRS of Alabama, ERS, PEEHIP and the RSA-1 deferred compensation plan.
Handbook pp. 4, 32, 35Sliding scale
The PEEHIP rule that lowers or raises a retiree's health premium by years of service above or below 25.
PEEHIP Sliding Scale, Non-Medicare FY2026, slide 1; Ala. Code § 16-25A-8.1More on this →Tier 1
TRS of Alabama members with TRS of Alabama or ERS service credit before Jan. 1, 2013. Benefit factor 2.0125%, highest 3 of the last 10 years.
Handbook pp. 6, 21More on this →Tier 2
Members who first started in a job covered by TRS of Alabama or ERS on or after Jan. 1, 2013. Benefit factor 1.65%, highest 5 of the last 10 years, capped at 80% of salary.
Handbook pp. 6, 22More on this →Vested
Having 10 years of service, which gives you a right to a lifetime benefit even if you leave.
Handbook p. 9More on this →Source: TRS Member Handbook, July 2026 edition (back cover "7-2026"), pp. 4, 6, 9, 21-22, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27, 32, 35. Also: Postretirement Employment Restrictions 2026; PEEHIP Sliding Scale, Non-Medicare FY2026; Code of Alabama Title 16, Ch. 25 and 25A. Last reviewed .