The table below displays benefit rules for the state-administered plans in our database. Click a column header to sort the database. Click on a pension plan’s “Plan ID” to view the simulation and grading results for that plan. Use the text box to search and filter the database using keywords. Click on values in the “Additional Details on Early Retirement Penalties” to see detailed benefit reduction rules.
View the database: Urban Institute: State and Local Employee Pension Plan Database
Many states and municipalities are struggling to fund defined benefit pension plans for their employees. Between 2009 and 2013, in order to improve their pension status, almost every state implemented some combination of lower benefit accruals and higher employer or employee contributions. Numerous cities made changes as well for similar reasons.
View the pdf: Brookings Institution: Financing State and Local Pension Obligations: Issues and Options
The gap between the total assets reported by state pension systems across the United States and the benefits promised to workers, now reported as the net pension liability, reached $1.1 trillion in fiscal year 2015, the most recent year for which complete data are available. That represents an increase of $157 billion, or 17 percent, from 2014.
View the article: Pew Research Center: The State Pension Funding Gap: 2015
Our pension report card and interactive map grade state-administered retirement plans on their financing; how much retirement security they provide to short- and long-term employees; and the workforce incentives they create for younger, older, and mid-career employees.
View the report: Urban Institute: The State of Retirement: Grading America’s Public Pension Plans