Despite a seven-figure salary that ranked him as Hawaii’s highest-paid state government employee the past four years, University of Hawaii Football Coach Greg McMackin won’t be drawing a state pension anywhere near his working pay.

That’s in part due to a cap the state’s public pension system adopted last year, as well as the fact that McMackin only worked for the university for six years. Retirement benefits are based on an employee’s highest three years of pay and length of service.

But he might still get nearly $30,000 a year out of a Hawaii pension and, because he’s 66, could take it anytime.

The university announced McMackin’s retirement Monday, following a 6-7 losing season that ranked the Warriors third among the Western Athletic Conference’s eight teams.

McMackin finished his fourth season as head coach and had one season left on a five-year contract that paid him a base salary of $1,100,004. McMackin accepted a $600,000 buyout.

The Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System‘s administrator told Civil Beat it cannot disclose a member’s pension benefits, even under the state’s public records law, citing an opinion by the state Office of Information Practices.

But a calculation using information available shows that McMackin could be earning a pension of up to $27,563.

Public employees contribute a portion of their pay toward retirement, while their employer (the state and the counties) contribute a percentage as well. The state budgeted a total of $681.5 million this fiscal year for pension benefit payments. That money comes from the state’s general fund, which is mostly filled by taxes.

Calculating Retirement Benefits

The pension system’s formula for calculating retirement benefits is:

Years of service x Percentage based on plan x Average final compensation

McMackin’s case is a little complicated.

He worked two stints as UH’s defensive coordinator in 1999 and 2007, before being named head coach in January 2008, totaling six years.

Public employees hired before June 30, 2006 were enrolled in the pension system’s “non-contributory plan.” Non-contributory plan members require 10 years of service before being eligible for retirement.

But most members were encouraged to switch over to what’s called the “hybrid plan,” which went into effect July 1, 2006. Members of the hybrid plan need only five years of service before being eligible for retirement.

The different plans have different multipliers for the percentage used to calculate benefits: 1.25 percent for non-contributory plan members and 2 percent for hybrid plan members.

State officials won’t say for sure, but McMackin likely was in the non-contributory plan in 1999, then switched over to the hybrid plan for his remaining years.

As for calculating average final compensation, all compensation including base pay, overtime and bonuses are counted when figuring out an employee’s three highest years of pay. Those three figures are then averaged.

In McMackin’s case, the pension system’s cap on compensation would come into play. Since 2009, the maximum amount of pay that can be used is $245,000¹. Even if an employee was in two different plans, their average final compensation would apply across calculations.

So, McMackin’s formula could look like this:

1 year of service x 1.25 percent x $245,000 (years in non-contributory plan) = $3,062.50

4 years of service x 2 percent x $245,000 (years in hybrid plan) = $24,500

Total = $27,562.50

That would represent the maximum benefit allowance, which would be lower if a retiree chooses options such as a joint survivor plan or takes a partial refund on their contributions.

The university said McMackin spent 32 years coaching college football at Idaho, San Jose State, Stanford, Utah, Miami, and Texas Tech. He also coached professionally in the NFL for Seattle and San Francisco. So he likely has several retirement plans in place.