Joe Paterno’s State Pension Worth $13.4 Million


Joe Paterno spent 61-years coaching at Penn State and for his efforts he earned $13.4 million in state pension funds.

Sue Paterno, the widow of the late Joe Paterno said through her spokesman on Tuesday that the family would receive a single payment of $10.1 million from the state of Pennsylvania by the end of May with the remaining $3.3 million to be paid out over the next two years.

Joe Paterno’s retirement pension was fairly easy to figure out by applying his earned income over his time at Penn State and then applying that earned income to the State Employees’ Retirement System which pays out equal amounts to all employees based on their state paid income levels.

After receiving the rather large pension the Paterno family plans to donate $1.5 million to Penn State-related and State College-area charities.

Paterno began his coaching career at Penn State in 1950 and he took over the program in 1966 where he remained head coach until he was fired last year by school officials in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal that involved at least 10 children.

Penn State proceeded to pay Joe Paterno a $1.02 million compensation package last year. Paterno’s last payment did not include any type of endorsement deals. Paterno’s compensation package was actually rather small in comparison to other coaches such as Alabama’s Nick Saban who netted $4.6 million per year and Bob Stoops of Oklahoma and his $4 million.

Joe Paterno claimed throughout his career that he could care less about the money, in fact the Paterno family had given back nearly $9 million to Penn State and other local charities during his time at the university. The Penn State library bears the name of the Paterno family after they donated almost $4 million for its construction.

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