If you're thinking about making the jump from federal to state government, you may want to first review a new General Accounting Office report that compares Uncle Sam's pension programs with the retirement packages each of the 50 states offers.
For example, most states don't offer matching contributions to employees' thrift savings plan accounts, while the federal government makes matching contributions of up to 5 percent of salary for civil servants enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System, GAO found. Only nine states offer matching contributions-Alaska, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah.
GAO issued the report, "State Pension Plans: Similarities and Differences Between Federal and State Designs" (GGD-99-45), to complement studies GAO has done comparing private sector pension plans with federal plans.
GAO compared state plans to the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), which is the pension plan for most federal employees hired after 1983, and the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), which covers most federal employees hired before 1983. FERS includes three components: a modest pension, Social Security coverage and the 401(k)-style Thrift Savings Plan, which includes both employer contributions and voluntary employee contributions. In contrast, CSRS has two components: a generous pension and the option of voluntarily contributing to the Thrift Savings Plan.
Three states-Minnesota, Missouri and Oklahoma-offer the same retirement components as FERS. Six states-Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada and Ohio-offer the same components as CSRS. Thirty-five states offer a modest pension, Social Security coverage and a thrift savings plan, but do not make employer contributions to the thrift savings plan.
Forty-three states provide Social Security coverage to their employees.
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