Summary: GAO found no clearcut answer to the question of whether federal retirement programs offer greater or smaller benefits than those offered by private sector retirement programs. The benefits available from the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) can be smaller, similar, or greater than those offered by the private sector, depending on a range of variables. Chief among these factors are the (1) ages at which employees retire and which programs provide reduced benefits, (2) extent to which employees and employers contribute to the defined contribution plans that are integral components of FERS and most private sector programs, and (3) impact of cost-of-living adjustments on benefit amounts over the long term. In fact, FERS and CSRS can provide quite different benefit amounts because of their different designs. As a result, greater benefits are available from FERS than from CSRS, but FERS employees must contribute larger percentages of their salaries to receive the higher benefits.
