The net cash to a teacher at full retirement is approximately the same as their full salary. A 100K salary will have approximately 11K withheld for retirement. 90K taxed federally and 100K taxed by MA (5K) so you net 84K before federal tax. In retirement you get 80K pension. No withholding for pension, not subject to state tax. Also no longer paying into the teachers Union dues. That final difference of about 3K is mostly made up by only paying federal tax on 80K instead of 90K.