Brief Recent Changes in Pension Benefits for State and Local Workers Not Covered by Social Security
Erald Kolasi, Chantel Boyens, Jack Smalligan
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State and local governments have adopted many strategies to address underfunding in their pension plans, including reducing benefits for new hires through changes to critical plan rules and provisions. In this brief, we examine the size of these changes for the millions of state and local workers whose jobs are not covered by Social Security. Overall, we find that newly hired workers in 2018 face greater burdens in financing their pensions compared to workers hired in 2008. These burdens include higher contribution rates and longer vesting periods, lower multiplier rates, and other changes. State and local workers who are also covered by Social Security faced more significant increases in financing burdens than their non-covered counterparts.

Research Areas Wealth and financial well-being Aging and retirement Taxes and budgets
Tags Economic well-being Pensions Retirement State and local tax issues Inequality and mobility Retirement policy
Policy Centers Income and Benefits Policy Center