Wednesday, October 05, 2011

How Generous Are Federal Employee Pensions?

How Generous Are Federal Employee Pensions? « The Enterprise Blog
USA Today reports that “retirement programs for former federal workers—civilian and military—are growing so fast they now face a multitrillion-dollar shortfall nearly as big as Social Security’s.”

USA Today’s figures include both pension and retiree health costs and are inclusive of military programs, so it is a broad figure.
Nevertheless, it raises an interesting question: how did retirement costs for a small segment of the population grow to rival Social Security, a program designed to cover nearly all Americans?
One big reason is that federal pension benefits are simply very generous relative to typical private sector plans.

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