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Bonus season has arrived for California’s public pension funds, and several years of strong investment returns have contributed to lucrative payouts for top executives.

The California State Teachers Retirement System announced last week bonuses for managers and for a range of employees whose wages are determined in part by performance incentives.

They had a good year.

The $341 billion fund provides pensions to approximately 1 million teachers and retirees. It handed out some of the biggest bonuses ever after achieving a return of 8.4%, exceeding its annual investment target of 7%.

CalSTRS Chief Executive Cassandra Lishnock received a $645,000 bonus on top of her annual salary of $430,000. This was the most money he could make under his contract, which included an incentive based on three-heard return on investment, strategic planning and personal performance.

His compensation marked the second time a CalSTRS CEO earned more than $1 million in a one-year period. Jack Ehnes He earned $1.1 million in 2021, the year he retired after 19 years of running CalSTRS.

CalSTRS also awarded more than $1.1 million in bonuses to retiring Chief Investment Officer Christopher Ailman. That’s nearly double his base salary of $612,000. Ailman has consistently earned seven-figure bonuses since 2021, according to CalSTRS board meeting agendas and data maintained by the website Transparent California. Their incentives were also tied to three-year investment returns. Description of CalSTRS.

In total, the CalSTRS board last week approved nearly $22 million in performance incentives for investment staff; This represents an increase of approximately $2 million over the previous year.

The larger California Public Employees Retirement System in September announced that Chief Executive Officer Marcie Frost would retire for the first time. Earn more than $1 million in salary and performance incentivesThanks to a $667,000 bonus.

CalPERS has approximately $527 billion It is involved in assets and provides retirement benefits to approximately 2 million people. Last year it achieved a 9.3% return on investment, exceeding its target of 6.8%.

CalPERS’ board of directors will meet next week and is scheduled to vote on annual performance incentives for dozens of investment managers and directors. CalPERS bonuses expected to increase approximately 20 million dollars in total, from $16.5 million last year.

Both pension funds are under pressure to meet investment goals and recover from losses suffered in the wake of state lawmakers sweet retirement benefits for public employees during the dot-com bubble. Both funds have assets worth approximately 75% of what they owe to their beneficiaries.