Sixty-two retirees from New York City's government systems received pension payments of at least $200,000 in the past year, according to data from the Empire Center's SeeThroughNY.net. Among them, former chief lifeguard Peter Stein, nicknamed the "Boss of the Beach," topped the list with a $570,000 pension payment for 2025, excluding back pay.

Collectively, these high-earning retirees, along with numerous others receiving more modest payouts, accounted for nearly $6.2 billion in taxpayer-funded benefits from the New York City Employees’ Retirement System. Abdullah Ar Rafee, a data manager at the Empire Center for Public Policy, described the payouts as indicative of a "fundamentally broken system" where "overtime spiking and legacy benefit rules" reward benefit padding at public expense.

Other notable pension recipients included Nicolas Audi, who retired from the Department of Environmental Protection in 2018 and received $341,487; Warren Murray Jr., a former prosecutor from the District Attorney’s Office who retired in 2021 and collected $325,015; Eileen Barkow, retired from the Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications in 2023 with $297,130; and Roger Smoke, a retiree from the Health and Hospitals Corporation who received $293,183.

Stein's case stood out as he retired just last year, and his pension was the highest among those receiving their first full-year payout in 2025. While nine retirees collected over $200,000 in their first full year, nearly 490 city retirees received six-figure payouts overall. Stein had previously faced public scrutiny for his dual role as a full-time gym teacher and chief lifeguard.

The average pension for a full-career city retiree was $62,582 last year. However, the number of retirees receiving six-figure pensions has doubled from approximately 1,600 in 2020 to 3,200 in the past year. Another retiree, Lucradia Riddick from the Administration for Children’s Services, received a payment of $627,886, though this amount included roughly $404,000 in back pay.

These city pension payouts represent a fraction of the nearly $17 billion disbursed by the state's largest retirement system.