Do Public Workers Without Social Security Get Comparable Benefits?

The brief’s key findings are:

• About one quarter of state and local workers are not currently covered by Social Security.
  
• Federal standards require that state and local plans provide their noncovered workers benefits equivalent to Social Security at the full retirement age.
  
• This study explores whether the plans satisfy the federal standards, and whether the standards themselves ensure equivalent benefits.
  
• The results show that public plans do adhere to the standards, and the standards satisfy the letter of the law.
  
• But looking beyond the standards to see if plans also provide equal lifetime benefits suggests that a significant portion fall short for some of their members.
  
• Policy options include updating the standards to a lifetime measure or, more importantly, requiring all public workers to be covered by Social Security.