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Nearly 200,000 retired public employees covered by the Wisconsin Retirement System will get a bump up in their pension checks, starting May 1.

Payments from the Core Trust Fund will rise 2 percent and retirees with part of their money in the Variable Fund will get a 4 percent increase from that account, the Department of Employee Trust Funds said Tuesday.

For the average retiree receiving about $24,700 a year from the Wisconsin Retirement System as of Dec. 31, 2016, the Core Fund increase will add about $494 a year to their pension payments.

All public employees in the Wisconsin Retirement System are covered by the Core Fund, the system’s main trust fund, whose holdings are diversified.

The Core Fund had a return of 8.6 percent in 2016 but its gains or losses are spread over a five-year period.

This is the fourth straight year that payments from the Core Fund will increase.

The Variable Fund, an all-stock fund with voluntary participation, had a return of 10.6 percent for 2016. Its results are not smoothed over multiple years. Last year, payments from the Variable Fund fell 5 percent.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board manages the Wisconsin Retirement System’s trust funds.