Highest Average Salary (HAS)

The average of your five highest consecutive years of salary used to calculate your pension benefits, taken from the employment information reported by your employer(s).

If you have periods of part-time employment being considered in determining your HAS, the annualized salary will be used.

For the purposes of calculating your highest average salary, the salary for a given year may not exceed the corresponding salary cap.

More at: How is My Pension Calculated?

Year's Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE)

A figure, set each year by the Canadian government, that specifies the earnings amount that can be used in calculating contributions to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and registered pension plans, such as LAPP for each year.

Salary Cap

The maximum salary set by the plan rules, in order to ensure your benefit does not exceed the Income Tax Act defined benefit limit.

The 2025 salary cap is $209,223.50.

Actuarial Assumption

An estimate made for the purpose of calculation of pension benefits.

Common actuarial assumptions relate to economic factors (such as the discount rate) and to predicting a person's lifespan, given her age, gender, health conditions and other factors.

Year's Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE)

A figure, set each year by the Canadian government, that specifies the earnings amount that can be used in calculating contributions to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and can be used in calculating contributions to registered pension plans, such as LAPP for each year.

Pensionable Salary

Sometimes an employee receives money which is in addition to regular pay. Not everything you see on your T4 statement is considered to be pensionable salary.

Pensionable salary might include:

Pay for shift work
Pay for weekends
Pay for being in an 'acting' role
The value of a vehicle provided for personal use
Variable pay (such as bonuses)

There are some types of pay that are not pensionable, though:

Overtime pay
Expense claims

If you have questions about whether a type of pay is considered pensionable or not, you may want to ask your employer as some will vary based on employer policy.

In 2025, members pay contributions on pensionable earnings up to $209,223.50. This salary cap is designed to stay within limits set by Canada's federal Income Tax Act.

Pension Partner

Persons are pension partners on any date on which one of the following applies:

they
1. are married to each other, and
2. have not been living separate and apart from each other for a continuous period longer than three years;
if clause (a) does not apply, they have been living with each other in a marriage-like relationship
1. for a continuous period of at least three years preceding the date, or
2. of some permanence, if there is a child of the relationship by birth or adoption.

Full-time Equivalency

This is the portion of full-time hours that you work.

For example, if you work half as many hours as someone who works full-time in the same position, then you work 50% or a '0.5'.

How to calculate your FTE:

___ (Hours worked per week) ÷ ___ (Regular full-time hours for position) = ___ (Your FTE)

Pensionable Service

The number of years you contribute to the Plan plus:

any service you have transferred into the Plan, or
prior service or periods of leave you have purchased.

For members who work part-time, pensionable service is based on the hours worked in that year (ignoring anything that is considered overtime), divided by the regular full-time hours for that position.

The maximum amount of pensionable service a member can earn in LAPP is 35 years.

More at: How is My Pension Calculated?

Pension Estimator

Curious what the amount of your future LAPP pension could be? This estimator is a great place to start if you’re thinking about joining LAPP.

This Pension Estimator can help if you're curious about different retirement scenarios and how they look in terms of the LAPP pension you might expect. You can also use the Pension Estimator to see how a buyback of service can improve your LAPP pension.

Already a LAPP Member?

Try the Pension Projection Calculator, accessible once you log in to Your Pension Profile. The calculator can project your future LAPP pension, based on your actual salary and LAPP service.

Pension Estimator Terms of Use

This Is Not A Calculation of An Actual Pension

The results of using this pension tool are not calculations of your actual future pension payments, because your future pension payments cannot be calculated accurately until you retire. This tool allows you to input your possible retirement scenarios, and it then applies the pension formula and other current, assumed pension calculation factors to your results. Your actual future pension payments could turn out to be quite different from these numbers.

As a result, the information you provide and the results that are created are for your information only, and are not reviewed, audited, or verified by LAPP or LAPP's administrator, Alberta Pensions Services Corporation (APS), and are in no way binding on LAPP or APS regarding the eventual calculation of your pension.

The calculations arising from your input are based on existing tax rules, your estimated highest average salary and the corresponding average Year's Maximum Pensionable Earnings (YMPE), all of which may change between the date you use this estimator and the date you actually retire or terminate your employment. The calculations do not take into account any projection of salary or the YMPE up to your retirement date.

The tool also does not estimate pre-1992 pension for members earning more than the salary cap set by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Seek Professional Advice About Pension Decisions
You should not rely on these estimations in making any decisions or taking any action with respect to your LAPP pension. Seek advice from a financial advisor before relying on any pension estimation, or choosing any pension option.

You may obtain a formal pension estimate by contacting us. A written estimate is helpful when discussing your pension planning with an advisor.

Get More Information
To get more information before using the Pension Estimator, contact us.

We strive to ensure that all information built into this estimator is accurate. However, your pension entitlement is always limited by what is allowed by the LAPP rules, so any inaccuracy or misunderstanding of comparative pension information arising from this estimator cannot increase the benefits otherwise available to you under the LAPP rules.

Please note: Pension estimates are subject to change based on whether annual valuations of the Plan include any changes in the actuarial assumptions used. Each estimate you receive is based on the assumption in place at the effective date of the calculation.