Set for life: IDF officers receive 9 million shekels in pension — 20 thousand per month from age 45

At age 45, most Israelis are very far from retirement. IDF officers, on the other hand, are already at the beginning of their second career after retiring from service, knowing they are set for life. How set? An officer retiring from the IDF receives an average monthly pension of about 20,000 shekels, and the value of the budgetary pension that will be paid to him throughout his life reaches an average of 9 million shekels. For comparison, the average pension of a retiree from the civil service stood at 6,984 shekels per month in 2024.

The generous pension is just one of the headlines emerging from the security system salary report for 2023–2024, published by the Wages and Labor Agreements Division at the Ministry of Finance. The report provides a glimpse into the pay slips of career soldiers, police officers, prison guards, Mossad and Shin Bet employees, and IDF civilian employees, and also shows what the war did to salaries and manpower in the security system.

The salary table in 2024 is led by the security system's support units, including the Atomic Energy Commission, with an average salary of 34,315 shekels per month. They are followed by the Mossad and Shin Bet, which appear together under "secret agencies," with 32,225 shekels, and the Institute for Biological Research with 31,932 shekels. IDF civilian employees earned an average of 22,926 shekels per position, police officers 20,562 shekels, prison guards 18,889 shekels, and all career IDF personnel 18,756 shekels.

But these averages hide very large gaps within the system. A Major General in the IDF earned an average of 73,099 shekels per month in 2024, a Brigadier General 58,402 shekels, a Colonel 43,682 shekels, and a Lieutenant Colonel 37,168 shekels. At the other end, a Second Lieutenant earned 10,409 shekels, a Lieutenant 13,526 shekels, and a Captain 17,925 shekels. In the police, the salary also climbs quickly with rank: a Police Major General earned an average of 66,084 shekels per month, a Police Brigadier General 57,278 shekels, and a Police Colonel 47,406 shekels.

Those who enjoyed one of the biggest salary jumps are actually the young career personnel. The average salary in initial career service reached 13,845 shekels in 2024, compared to 11,786 shekels in 2022, an increase of about 17% in two years. The Ministry of Finance explains the surge by the salary additions given as part of the IDF's multi-year plan, with an emphasis on young people and combat soldiers, and by the increase in the level of activity during the war.

In the police and the Israel Prison Service (IPS), the picture is different. The average salary in the police decreased by 2.2% in 2024 and in the IPS by 0.5%, but the data does not yet reflect all the significant salary additions given to personnel starting from mid-2024. These are expected to be reflected in the 2025 report.

The war also changed the profile of IDF civilian employees. Their number grew from 6,609 in 2021 to 8,043 in 2024, excluding students, with a large part of the growth coming from the fields of intelligence and technology. Along with the new employees, the average age dropped from 50 to 43.8 and the average seniority from 15.8 to 11.8 years. At the same time, their average salary rose from 21,845 shekels in 2021 to 25,746 shekels in 2024. The Ministry of Finance attributes the increase to the change in the employee mix, the salary agreement signed in 2024, and the many overtime hours during the war.

There are also more women in the security system, but their salary is significantly lower than that of their male counterparts. About a third of career IDF personnel in 2024 were women, compared to 26% in 2017, and the rate of women among IDF civilian employees reached 25%. Despite the increase in representation, the wage gaps actually widened slightly in 2024. The Ministry of Finance explains this, among other things, by the activity and combat additions given mainly to field positions, where there is a male majority.

The most prominent gap is found among IDF civilian employees. Women's wages in 2024 stood at only 72% of men's wages, compared to 80.5% in 2020. In the police, women earned 83.5% of men's wages and in the IPS 89.8%.

Let's return to the pensions received by security forces personnel. A warrant officer in the IDF retires at an average age of 50.3, with a monthly pension of 15,281 shekels and an accumulated pension value of 6.3 million shekels. A police officer retires at an average age of 54.86, receives 22,150 shekels per month, and his pension value reaches 7.4 million shekels. In the secret agencies, the average monthly pension is even higher, 23,295 shekels, and its accumulated value is estimated at 8.1 million shekels.

The Ministry of Finance is not satisfied with these data, to say the least, especially when the security system is now demanding a budget addition of tens of billions of shekels. The law set a target that the average pension of officers retiring from the IDF should converge to, but the numbers are still far from it. In 2024, the average pension stood at about 20,000 shekels per month, compared to an updated target of 15,717 shekels. If the pensions do not converge to the target set by law in 2025 as well, the Minister of Finance will be required to set new regulations for pension payments.