Fourteen retired New York City educators received more than $500,000 in pension benefits in 2025, according to data released by SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
The data was obtained from the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (NYCTRS), which manages pensions for New York City public school teachers, superintendents, and other professionals, as well as faculty from The City University of New York (CUNY).
Harris Zeigler, a psychology professor at Hunter College who retired in 2025, after more than 64 years of service, received the largest payout at $1,064,438. Other top recipients include:
- Iris Royster, retired in 2009, $674,392;
- Iris Rodriguez, retired in 2013, $643,895;
- Grace Schulman, English Professor at Baruch College, retired in 2023, $625,553;
- Sherrol Lyons, retired in 2009, $623,120.
In total, 69 retirees collected pensions exceeding $300,000 last year, while 273 received more than $200,000. The number of six-figure pensioners rose 13.2 percent, with 7,341 members receiving over $100,000, compared to the previous year’s tally of 6,486.
Among the 93,234 NYCTRS members, 32,004 had more than 30 years of service credit—the threshold at which most members become eligible for unreduced benefits. For these “full-career” retirees, the average pension payout was $81,783.
Overall, NYCTRS made $5.02 billion in pension payments in 2025, a 2.87 percent increase over the previous year’s total of $4.88 billion.
Based on hire dates in the collected data, the Empire Center grouped retirees into tiers. Tiers 1–4 follow a familiar pattern — pensions rise steeply with tenure, with Tier 1 members in the 30+ band averaging $87,156 compared to $71,680 for Tier 4. Tiers 5 and 6 have small populations, and some show service credit exceeding what their hire dates would suggests. This is likely due to prior service buybacks, where members pay into the system to claim credit for public employment predating their membership.
New Retirees Make Bank
Of the 3,203 newly retired educators – those who retired in 2024 and received full pension benefits during 2025, 231 received more than $100,000 in pension benefits and six received more than $200,000.
The new “full-career” retirees – those with more than 30 years of service credit, averaged $86,122.
The top five recipients included:
- Karen Rosner, retired as Director of Visual Arts for NYC DOE, $363,401;
- Karel Rose, retired from Brooklyn College, $341,747;
- Olga Guzman, former Principal of P.S. 228 in Queens, $323,479;
- Elizabeth Fong, NYC, $248,824;
- Morris Hounion, retired CUNY Professor, $248,355.
The Empire Center earlier published the data on the pensions for the teachers in New York State, outside New York City.
Since 2008, SeeThroughNY has annually posted all available salary and pension information for state and local employees. The data are publicly available thanks to the Empire Center’s years-long effort to protect the public’s right to access pension records, including the names of retirees, which culminated in a landmark 2014 Court of Appeals decision.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
