Public Employee Pension Plans (United States)

^{This article is about pension systems offered to employees of all levels of government in the United States. It is not about non-pension forms of retirement systems such as defined contribution.}

Public sector pensions are offered in the United States by federal, state and local levels of government. They are available to most, but not all, public sector employees. Requirements for some minimum time on the job prior to vesting typically delays pension availability to new employees until after some specified term of service is completed. Some local governments do not offer pensions at all, but may offer other sorts of retirement plans such as a defined contribution retirement plan.

History of Public Employee Pension Plans in the United States

Public pensions got their start with various 'promises', informal and legislated, made to veterans of the Revolutionary War and, more extensively, the Civil War. They were expanded greatly, and began to be offered by a number of state and local governments during the early Progressive Era in the late nineteenth century.

Federal civilian pensions were offered under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), formed in 1920. CSRS provided retirement, disability and survivor benefits for most civilian employees in the US Federal government, until the creation of a new Federal agency, the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), in 1987.

Federal-level Pension Systems

*Federal Employees Retirement System - covers approximately 2.44 million full-time civilian employees (as of Dec 2005). [ [http://www.census.gov/govs/www/ Federal, State, and Local Governments - Main Page ] ]

Note: Retired pay for U.S. Armed Forces retirees is, strictly speaking, not a pension but instead is a form of retainer pay. U.S. military retirees do not vest into a retirement system while they are on active duty; eligibility for non-disability retired pay is solely based upon time in service. Moreover, unlike other retirees, U.S. military retirees are subject to involuntary recall to active duty at any time, though the likelihood of such a recall is remote, especially after age 60.

tate Public Pension Systems

Each of the 50 US states has a retirement system for their employees. There are 3.68 million full-time and 1.39 million part-time state-level-government civilian employees as of 2002. [ [http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/gc023x2.pdf Compendium of Public Employment: 2002 ] ]

*Alaska - Alaska Retirement System
*Alabama - Retirement Systems of Alabama
*Arizona - Arizona State Retirement System and Public Safety Personnel Retirement System of Arizona
*Arkansas - Arkansas currently has six retirement systems which cover most employees at the state and local level: Judicial Retirement, Public Employees Retirement, State Highway Employees Retirement, State Police Retirement, District Judges Retirement and Teacher Retirement. [www.arkansas.gov/dfa/budget/ documents/retirement_systems_05_07.doc]
*California - California Public Employees' Retirement System
*California - California State University Emeritus and Retired Faculty Association
*Colorado - Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association
*Illinois - State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS)
*Minnesota - Public Employees Retirement Association of Minnesota
*New Hampshire - New Hampshire Retirement System
*Pennsylvania - State Employees' Retirement System and Public School Employees' Retirement System

US Local Government Pension Systems

^{See Local government in the United States for a more complete description of the 87000+ entities that make up the local level of government in the US.}

Many US cities are allowed to participate in the pension plans of their state. Some of the largest US cities have their own pension plan. The total number of local government employees in the United States as of 2002 is 13.2 million. There are 10.15 million full-time and 3.13 million part-time local-government civilian employees as of 2002. [ [http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/gc023x1.pdf Employment of Major Local Governments ] ]

ee also

*Political divisions of the United States
*
*Retirement plans in the United States

External References

* [http://www.census.gov/govs/www/ U.S. Census Bureau page for local government]
* [http://www.nasra.org/directories/members.asp Directory of state pension executives]
* [http://www.afscme.org/retirees/10422.cfm Public employee retirement systems]
* [http://www.pensiontsunami.com/ Overview of Pension Crises]

tate Links

* [http://www.state.ak.us/drb/ Alaska state retirement system]
* [http://www.rsa.state.al.us/About/about_rsa.htm Alabama state retirement system]
* [http://www.apers.org/ Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System]
* [http://www.atrs.state.ar.us/ Arkansas Teacher Retirement System]
* [http://legaudit.state.ar.us/AuditReports/StateAgencies/2001/HighwayEmployeesRetirementSystem2001.pdf Arkansas State Highway Employees Retirement System]
* [http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/about/home.xml California CalPERS]
* [http://www.copera.org/pera/about/overview.stm Colorado PERA]
* [http://www.delawarepensions.com/ Delaware Office of Pensions]

References