Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 23613. Classification and monthly payments;  cost-of-living allowance

(a) Beneficiaries under the fund, who retire on or after January one, one thousand nine hundred fifty-six and before the effective date of this amending act, shall be entitled to receive from the fund, per month, an amount equalling fifty per centum of the average monthly wages earned by the contributor as an employe of the bureau of fire of the city during any five calendar years of service or the last sixty months immediately preceding retirement.  Beneficiaries under the fund, who retire on or after the effective date of this amending act shall be entitled to receive from the fund, per month, an amount equalling fifty per centum of the average monthly wages earned by the contributor as an employe of the bureau of fire of the city during any three calendar years of service or the last thirty-six months immediately preceding retirement.  If any employe has not been employed in the bureau of fire for at least five years but is otherwise entitled to a pension, such employe's pension shall equal not less than fifty per centum of the amount which would constitute the average monthly wages received by the beneficiary as an employe of the bureau of fire.

(b) Beneficiaries under the fund in any case shall be entitled to minimum monthly payments in the amounts indicated in the following table:

(c) Beneficiaries under the fund who have retired prior to December 31, 1965, shall be paid an additional sum of fifteen dollars ($15) per month.

(d) The governing body of a city of the second class may grant to beneficiaries under the fund, regardless of the date of retirement whether prior to or after the effective date of this act, an annual cost-of-living allowance not to exceed the per centum change in the price index from November of the year preceding the most recent cost-of-living adjustment as taken on November one in each year times the beneficiaries pension allowance, excluding cost-of-living adjustments.  No pension shall be paid at a lower rate than that which the beneficiary would be entitled to receive excluding the cost-of-living allowance.

The cost-of-living percentage is the average quarterly calendar year change of the Consumer Price Index (all items--United States city average) published monthly by the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, using as a base of one hundred the years 1957-1959.