2012 Retirement Confidence Survey of the State and Local Government Workforce

While much has been written about the financial condition of public sector pension plans and plan reform, there has been comparatively little documentation of public sector workers’ confidence, expectations, and behavior with respect to retirement planning and saving.

This joint research project by SLGE and the TIAA-CREF Institute surveys over 1,000 state and local government employees about these issues. Key findings include:

• Only 16 percent of teachers and 25 percent of police and firefighters are very confident they are saving the right amount for retirement.
• A full 57 percent of public sector workers expect to work longer than they would like.
• 72 percent expect to work for pay after retiring.
• Only 22 percent are very confident that they will have enough money to take care of medical expenses during retirement.
• Two-thirds are not confident that Medicare will continue to provide benefits of equal value to those provided today.