Pensions

Myth: The State of California and taxpayers pay the total cost of public pensions.

Investment earnings pay the majority of the costs of public pensions. For every dollar paid in pensions, 64 cents comes from investments.

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Myth: Public pension benefits are excessive and a drain on the public.
The average CalPERS pension is about $25,000 per year. Half of CalPERS retirees receive $18,000 per year or less in benefits. Unlike the private secto...
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Myth: CalPERS is going to run out of money because of baby boomers retiring.
CalPERS began putting away money for the baby boomers the day they first came to work for government. CalPERS plans are prefunded and contributions ar...
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Myth: Pensions are among the highest costs of State government.

Forty-one percent of the State general fund budget is earmarked for public education, 12 percent for higher education, and 10 percent for correctio...
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Myth: Rate smoothing is funny accounting that requires future generations to pay pensions of those working today.

CalPERS follows accounting standards set by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. We have received awards over the last 15 years for meeting...
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Myth: One can't rely on CalPERS actuarial reports.

CalPERS employers give high ratings to CalPERS actuaries. Employer surveys conducted for CalPERS by outside polling agencies rate the value of the ...
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Myth: Pension Costs for the State of California have increased by 2000 percent in the last 10 years.
This statement compares a time when the State paid little or nothing during years of robust investment earnings and took a pension holiday to the rece...
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Myth: Government workers don't contribute to their pensions; taxpayers are on the hook to pay those costs.

State employees contribute between 8-12 percent of their monthly earnings. Local public employees pay up to 10 percent of their paychecks toward pe...
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Myth: Police and firefighters retire at age 50 with 90 percent of pay.

Our records indicate that over the last seven years, safety workers who retired at age 50 with 30 years of service represented 1 percent of all tho...
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Myth: CalPERS is unsustainable.

As a percentage of payroll, employer contribution rates are returning to the levels of the 1980s. In fiscal years 1979-80, 1980-81, 1981-82, for ex...
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Myth: Prior to SB 400, the State paid $400 million in contributions. Ten years later, the State is paying $3 billion due to benefit enhancements.
The $400 million paid in 1999 was the lowest the State had paid in generations and it was due to the fact that the investment returns in the mid-1990s...
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Myth: The average CalPERS pensioner gets 90 percent of their pay.

The average CalPERS member receives 50 percent or less of their pay in retirement. CalPERS has 513, 000 retirees today. The average pension is $2, ...
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