Federal Employees' Retirement System: Summary of Recent Trends (CRS Report for Congress)
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| Release Date |
Revised Dec. 12, 2023 |
| Report Number |
98-972 |
| Authors |
Patrick J. Purcell, Domestic Social Policy Division |
| Source Agency |
Congressional Research Service |
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Summary:
This report descri
bes recent trends in the characteristics of
annuitants
and current employees
covered by the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and the Federal Employees’ Retirement
System (FERS) as well as
the financial status of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund
(CSRDF)
.
In FY2016, 94
% of
current
civilian federal employees were enrolled in
FERS
,
which covers employees hired since 1984.
Six percent
were enrolled in
CSRS
,
which covers only employees hired before 1984.
In FY2016
,
more than
2.
6
million people received civil service annuity
payments
, in
cluding 2,077,804 employee annuitants and 533,884
survivor
annuitants
.
O
f these
individuals
, 72%
received annuities earned under CSRS.
About o
ne
-
third of all federal employee annuitants and survivor annuitants reside
in five states: California,
Texas,
Flor
ida, Maryland, and Virginia.
The average civilian federal employee who retire
d in FY2016 was 61.3
years old
and had completed 25.6
years of federal service.
The average monthly annuity payment to workers who retired under CSRS in
FY2016 was $4,755
. Workers
who retired under FERS received an average
monthl
y annuity of $1,714
.
Employees retiring under
FERS
had a
shorter
average length of service
than those under CSRS. FERS annuities
are
supplemented by S
ocial Security benefits and the Thrift Savings Plan
(TSP
)
.
At the end of FY2016
, the balance of the
CSRDF
was $
879.8
billion, an amount
equal to
more
than 1
0
times the
amount of
outlays from the fund that year
. The
trust fund
balance is
expected to reach $909 billion by the end of FY2018
.
From
FY
1970 to
FY
1985,
the number of people receiving
federal
civil service
annuities rose from fewer than 1 million to nearly 2 million, an increase of
105%.
Between FY1985 and FY2016
, the number of civil service annuitants rose by
680,000, an increase of about 35
%.
In FY2013,
the number of
civilian federal employees, including Postal Service
employees, totaled 3.3 million workers. This was 254,000 less than the number
of employees in FY2000, and 480,000 fewer than the number of employees in
FY1994.
In FY2016, a
ll CSRS employees were aged 45 or older, compared with 61% of
FERS employees who were aged 45 or older (38.6% of FERS employees were
younger than 45). Fifty five percent of CSRS employees were aged 60 or older,
whereas 13% of FERS employees were in this ag
e
range.
For a
general
overview of current benefits and financing under CSRS and FERS
, see
CRS Report
98
-
810,
Federal Employees’ Retirement System: Benefits and Financing
.
For summary information on recen
t reform proposals related to CSRS and FERS,
see
CRS In
Focus IF10243,
Civilian Federal Retirement: Current Law, Recent Changes, and Reform
Proposals
