What are the pension rights of a state civil service employee?

The cases discussing pension rights, and stating they vest upon acceptance of employment, generally stress the distinction between pension rights and other employment benefits. In Miller v. State of California (1977) 18 Cal.3d 808, a state civil service employee challenged a statutory amendment that reduced the age of mandatory retirement from 70 to 67, asserting it impaired his vested contractual right to qualify for a larger pension by working longer. (Id. at pp. 811, 813.) The court rejected the employee's claims: "On the contrary it is well settled in California that public employment is not held by contract but by statute and that, insofar as the duration of such employment is concerned, no employee has a vested contractual right to continue in employment beyond the time or contrary to the terms and conditions fixed by law. [Citations.] Nor is any vested contractual right conferred on the public employee because he occupies a civil service position since it is equally well settled that '[the] terms and conditions of civil service employment are fixed by statute and not by contract.'" (Id. at p. 813.) Additionally, "[p]laintiff's reliance upon decisions concerning the pension rights of public employees is misplaced. This court has held, as will be explained hereafter, that pension rights involve 'obligations which are protected by the contract clause of the Constitution.' ... Pension rights, unlike tenure of civil service employment, are deferred compensation earned immediately upon the performance of services for a public employer '[and] cannot be destroyed ... without impairing a contractual obligation.'" (Id. at p. 814.)