The report's key findings are:• Connecticut's pension systems for state employees and teachers face large unfunded liabilities, despite recent efforts by the State to fund.• A significant source of the problem is the "legacy debt" built up before the State began pre-funding its pensions in...

Since 2007, backloaded amortization schedules and investment returns below the assumed return (mostly during the financial crisis) added to the unfunded liability for NHRS and increased costs. However, because NHRS is a relatively small retirement system and employers do not contribute much...

Multiemployer pension plans, like other employer plans, have been challenged by two financial crises since 2000. The majority of multiemployer plans are returning to financial health, but a substantial minority face serious funding problems that are exacerbated by unique structural challenges in...

Social Security is designed to serve as the base of retirement support, to be supplemented by employer-sponsored plans. However, approximately one-quarter of state and local government employees – currently, around 5 million workers annually – are not covered by Social Security on their...

States and localities account for pensions in their financial statements according to standards laid out by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB). Under these standards, state and local plans generally follow an actuarial model and discount their liabilities by the long-term yield...

Federal law allows certain state and local government employees to be excluded from Social Security if they are covered by an employer pension of sufficient generosity. As a result, approximately one-quarter of state and local workers are not covered by Social Security on their current job....

Public pension funding has recently become a front-burner policy issue in the wake of the financial crisis and given the pending retirement of large numbers of baby boomers. This paper examines the current funding of state and local pensions using a sample of 126 plans, estimating an aggregate...

Public sector defined benefit pension plans are based on final earnings. As such, these plans are back-loaded; those with long careers receive substantial benefits and those who leave early receive little. The analysis consists of three parts. The first section discusses the design of state and...