California pays two kinds of public pensions, and plenty of marriages collect both. A teacher and the school office manager work in the same building. They will retire under completely different rules.
The dividing line is the credential, not the workplace. CalSTRS covers certificated educators — teachers, counselors, librarians, principals. CalPERS covers almost everyone else: classified school staff, city and county workers, state employees, and public-safety officers.
Cousins, not twins
Both are defined-benefit plans — pensions that pay a set monthly check for life. Both use the same three-part math: age factor times years of service times final pay. The age factor — the percentage of pay you earn per year worked — is where they split.
CalSTRS 2%-at-60 members (hired before 2013) hit 2.0% at age 60 and cap out at 2.4% at 63. Thirty-plus years of service adds a +0.2% career bonus, so the cap arrives even sooner.
CalSTRS 2%-at-62 members (hired 2013 or later) reach 2.0% at 62 and do not cap until 2.4% at 65. No career bonus.
CalPERS miscellaneous members sit under 2%-at-55, 2%-at-60, or the newer 2%-at-62, depending on hire date and contract. Safety members get richer formulas — 3%-at-50 for Classic, 2.7%-at-57 for PEPRA. And PEPRA CalPERS members face a $178,820 pay cap in 2026: salary above that line earns no pension at all.
Here is why the household spreadsheet matters. A 2%-at-60 teacher gains nothing by working past 63. Her PEPRA spouse is still climbing until 65. Same house, opposite retirement math.
The Social Security twist
CalSTRS members do not pay into Social Security at work. No 6.2% leaves the paycheck, and no credit builds for those years. Most classified staff and many CalPERS workers do pay in. So one spouse builds two benefits while the other builds one bigger one.
For decades, two rules punished the teacher anyway. The Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset cut Social Security for people with non-covered pensions. The Social Security Fairness Act repealed both in January 2025, retroactive to January 2024.
Translation: a teacher who waited tables in college, or spent a decade in the private sector, now collects her full earned benefit. Spousal and survivor benefits are no longer offset either. If someone once told you not to bother filing, re-run the numbers.
Raises and survivors
The annual raise differs too. CalSTRS pays a 2% simple adjustment — always 2% of the original check, so the raise never grows. A backstop account keeps long-retired members near 85% of original purchasing power. CalPERS COLAs — cost-of-living adjustments, the yearly inflation raise — typically compound up to 2%, tied to actual inflation and the contract.
Survivors are the gap couples find at the worst time. In many CalPERS contracts, the full unmodified allowance already includes an automatic 25% continuance to an eligible spouse. The CalSTRS Member-Only benefit includes none: when the member dies, the check stops.
Protecting a CalSTRS spouse means electing an option and accepting a permanently smaller check. That is why pension maximization — weighing that reduction against life insurance — matters most for CalSTRS families.
One bonus. CalSTRS members also carry a Defined Benefit Supplement — a separate side account funded largely from 2001–2010 contribution diversions. It sits on your annual statement. Check the balance before assuming the pension line is the whole story.
The homework is simple. Pull both annual statements, confirm each formula, and watch what the next five birthdays do to each age factor. Then plan the household as one system: two pensions, Social Security, and the 403(b)/457 accounts that fill the gaps.