State and Local Pension Reform Since the Financial Crisis

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The brief’s key findings are:

  • Since the financial crisis, 74 percent of state plans and 57 percent of large local plans have cut benefits or raised employee contributions to curb rising costs.
  • Plans with a larger pension cost burden and lower initial employee contributions were more likely to enact such changes.
  • And, among plans that made changes, those in states with the strongest legal protections for current workers were more likely to limit the cuts to new hires.