THe New York Public Employees Retirement System is for employees of the state of NY and are members of state run pension systems / retirement that are offered by federal, state and local governments. The retirement plans are available to most, but not all, public sector employees usually you have to be a full-time state employee to qualify for these pension plans.
Some local & state governments don\'t offer defined-benefit retirement systems but may offer a defined contribution type plan. In most states the public employee pension plans are known as Public Employee Retirement Systems (PERS) or State Employee Retirement Systems (SERS).