Make a decision on buying service

Explore the factors involved when buying service and what you should consider. Buying service can potentially increase your future pension.

Example of buying service

Consider a full-time member with a salary of $58,300. For this member, making up for a year’s gap in service would cost about $12,000. For some leaves (e.g., maternity, parental/adoption and compassionate care), the employer will cover about half of that cost.

Paying for that $12,000 leave could increase this member’s pension in retirement by about $1,600 each year.

A typical retired member collects a pension for about 27 years, so paying for that leave today could mean as much as $43,200 more throughout the years of retirement.