Every result shown on this site is assigned to one of three source categories. That transparency is part of the product, not a disclaimer buried at the bottom.
Directly from the Iowa DAS historical salary database and published benefits materials. Fiscal years, department names, salary figures, published premium tables.
Facts you supply because the salary database doesn't contain them: hire date, leave balances, benefit elections, retirement target, CGI offer terms.
Projections based on the best available information and disclosed assumptions. Labeled clearly so you know where uncertainty lives.
The historical salary database covers Iowa state employees for fiscal years 2007–2025. It contains approximately 1.17 million records with name, department, agency, position, base salary (text), total salary paid, and travel/subsistence amounts.
The database does not contain hire dates, termination dates, leave balances, benefit elections, or durable cross-year employee identifiers. That is why the analysis collects those facts from you.
The same person may appear in many formats across the historical data — last-name-first, first-name-first, with or without middle initials, under a former married or maiden name, or with spacing and punctuation differences.
The search engine normalizes names by uppercasing, removing punctuation, collapsing spaces, and tokenizing words, then groups likely matches into candidate clusters. You confirm which clusters are yours before any analysis is run.
The application never silently assumes a single database identity. Only records you explicitly select are used in your analysis.
| Years of Service | Hours per Pay Period | ~Days per Year |
|---|---|---|
| 0–4 years | 3.08 hrs | ~10 days |
| 5–9 years | 4.00 hrs | ~13 days |
| 10–14 years | 4.61 hrs | ~15 days |
| 15–19 years | 5.23 hrs | ~17 days |
| 20+ years | 5.54 hrs | ~18 days |
3.7 hours per biweekly pay period for most classifications (~12 days/year). Iowa has no cap on sick leave accumulation for most employees.
Eligible Iowa retirees may apply unused sick leave to offset retiree health insurance premiums. The model estimates this value at approximately $800/month per day of unused sick leave, representing one month of premium credit. This is classification- and plan-specific. The model shows this as a separate labeled line — it is an estimate only and should be verified with Iowa DAS and IPERS.
State of Iowa premium figures are based on approximate FY2025 DAS benefit rate sheets. CGI premium figures are based on available CGI benefit highlight documents. Both should be verified against current documents before relying on specific numbers.
The comparison shows employee-paid premium share only. Employer contribution structures also differ between the two employment contexts and affect total compensation value.
IPERS regular member formula: 2.0% × years of service × Final Average Salary (FAS)
FAS is the average of the highest 3 years of covered wages. The model approximates FAS using the last 3 projected salary years.
Employee contribution: approximately 6.29% of covered wages (regular members). Employer contribution: approximately 9.44% of covered wages (regular members).
Vesting: 7 years of service. Rule of 88: age + service ≥ 88 enables unreduced retirement. Age 62 with 20 years, or age 65, also qualify. Early retirement reduction factors are not applied in the current model.
The model shows three retirement scenarios: (A) if service had continued through retirement, (B) if the employee leaves and preserves accrued IPERS, and (C) the CGI 401(k) path.
The 401(k) projection uses a standard future-value annuity formula at the employee's stated contribution rate and growth rate assumption.
For comparison framing, the model applies a 4% safe-withdrawal rate to the projected balance to produce an approximate annual income equivalent. This is a rough comparison tool — not a guarantee or financial advice.
If an employee's career began before 2007, the current salary database does not contain those records. The employee may enter a known start year, and the application labels any pre-2007 estimates clearly. Where leave accrual models use pre-2007 years, those values are marked as estimated.
The emotional framing of this site can be sharp.
The math cannot be sloppy.
The strongest version of this analysis is pointed in tone, careful in sourcing, transparent in assumptions, and devastating in its clarity.