Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! We have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. You need to know this news in the fight for a secure retirement.
NPPC News
Contrary to what you might hear from pension opponents, pensions are making a comeback. Defined benefit pensions, which many anti-pension advocates insist are a relic of the past, remain the preferred retirement option for public employees. Cities and states across the country that previously closed their DB plans in the past are now returning to pensions to mitigate the negative impact plan closures have had on recruitment and retention, and to increase retirement security for public employees. Read all about it in our newest blog, Bringing Pensions Back!
Public Safety is Stronger with Pensions
New research from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) further supports one of NPPC’s main pillars: Pensions are the superior retirement option when it comes to recruiting and retaining essential public safety officials. The study, which focused primarily on retaining a robust workforce of police officers and firefighters, found that pensions are “critical” to building and retaining the ranks of dedicated public safety workers.
The report notes that over two-thirds of the public safety workforce does not have access to Social Security benefits, making pensions their most reliable retirement opportunity. Using a nationally representative sample of 28 police and firefighter pension plans, NIRS determined that the majority of these plans–up to three quarters–expect at least 75% of their current employees to retire from the plan. That’s a tremendous retention rate.
“Defined benefit pension plans are an essential component of a public safety career,” explained NIRS research director Tyler Bond. “Pensions have demonstrated impacts on helping to recruit police officers and firefighters, keep them throughout their career and then help them to transition into retirement at the appropriate time.”
Another Connecticut City Considers Returning Pensions for Public Safety
Perhaps taking a cue from NIRS’s newest research, or from the three nearby municipalities who have returned pensions to their police departments, officials in the city of Stratford are being encouraged to reopen the DB plan for police officers by the Stratford Police Union to help mitigate severe staffing shortages.
“Wouldn’t it be better to pay our public servants an adequate pension rather than seeing overtime used indiscriminately to prop up an administration that is rapidly losing the confidence of its membership?” asked Norm Pattis, a New Haven attorney representing the union.
The city of Stratford, which stopped offering pensions to its police officers in 2010, has been losing police officers to nearby departments with better retirement packages.
Alaska Cities Still Struggling with Employee Shortages
After Senate Bill 88 was narrowly defeated in the Alaska State Legislature last year, residents in Alaska continue to grapple with public service interruptions. This week, the city of Anchorage announced plans to reduce public bus routes due to an ongoing driver shortage. According to the Anchorage Transportation Department, “significant workforce shortages and challenges” have caused intermittent route cancellations for almost two years.
Bart Rudolph, transit planning and communications manager for Anchorage’s People Mover bus system said, “We’ve realized that we are not really meeting the expectations of the public in terms of service reliability as a result. This is obviously a very big deal for us, and it’s a hard decision that we have to make to cut service.”
Noting that driver vacancies create dangerous overtime conditions for current employees, Rudolph went on to say, “We are forcing people to work overtime just to maintain the schedule that we have, and so, that’s one of the goals — to prioritize the rest and wellness of our bus operators and not to overwork them all the time.” Anchorage paid People Mover bus drivers $750,000 in overtime between Jan. 22 and June 22. During that time, they had a shortage of 32 drivers daily on average and missed 224 trips, according to the department.
Be sure to check back next Friday for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement! For now, sign up for NPPC News Clips to receive daily pension news from across the country directly to your inbox.