THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040008
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
You reported (Business section, Sept. 10) that pensions for federal workers exceed those of state workers, and that both far exceed those of the private sector. I am incensed. The numbers as presented may be accurate, but the article was incomplete and an affront to the many, many federal workers who read your newspaper.
First, please define ``federal worker.'' I assume you mean civil-service employees of the federal government. If so, there are still two, very different retirement plans for these workers.
Those employed through 1983 are under the Civil Service Retirement Fund System and those employed after 1983 use the Federal Retirement System. Both of these programs require mandatory participation (read that as ``contribution'').
CSRFS is a separate fund and FRS uses Social Security. Both allow employees to participate in the Thrift Savings Plan, which is similar to a private company's 401k plan. FRS employees receive matching funds for TSP contributions, while CSRFS employees do not. To which of these plans does the article refer? If payments for TSP are included, are private 401k plans included in the numbers presented?
This brings us to the second problem with your report: It compares what is received as pension but never presents what an individual has contributed to that pension. As a CSRFS federal worker, I contribute 5.63 percent of each paycheck to the CSRFS fund.
How much do state workers and private-sector workers contribute to their pensions? Maybe they make similar contributions, or maybe they make more or maybe none. I do not know. But without that information, any comparison of pensions is unfair and slanted. This is the type of journalism I expect to see in the rags for sale at the grocery check-out, not in a respectable newspaper, and especially not from a national wire service.
The third problem with your article is that it indicates that all federal and state pensions are paid by taxpayers. What do the federal and state governments do with the contributions that their employees make to pension funds? Are they wisely invested and carefully managed? Are they kept separate from general funds? I would certainly like the answers to those questions. And I would really like the media to stop presenting me as a leech on the poor taxpayer. I pay taxes, too - lots of them.
I challenge you to do some research and to print an article presenting a true and honest comparison of federal, state and private-worker pensions. Maybe I do get a deal, but at least provide all the information needed to prove that!
MARY LOU HOFFERT
Virginia Beach, Sept. 26, 1994 by CNB