Who’s Getting What?
A look inside the numbers on retirees and the size of their benefits.
I still remember going to school and wondering how many of my classmates got an A on a test and how many got a B (like me – at least most of the time). Then, when I had children, I wondered how many other children were walking when mine were crawling and how many were saying as many words as mine were? It might not be healthy to compare ourselves (or our children) with others, but sometimes it’s hard not to.
I find the same is true in the federal workforce. People want to know how many of their colleagues have $1 million or more in their TSP accounts? (It’s less than 300). Or how many retirees get benefits packages approaching six figures? (More than 50,000 retirees receive a monthly annuity of more than $7,000, but that’s only 2.7 percent of the total number of retirees).
For those of you who crave more statistics like these, here are some numbers -- courtesy of the Office of Personnel Management -- that you might find interesting about federal retirees and their benefits.
But first, some background on the current workforce: At the beginning of fiscal 2011, more than 2.8 million employees were covered under either the Civil Service Retirement System or the Federal Employees Retirement System, an increase of 75,000 from the beginning of the previous year. Of the total, 89 percent of employees were under FERS, leaving only 11 percent of the workforce under CSRS.
Now for the data on retirees:
| Employee Annuitants Added to the Retirement Rolls, FY 2011 | ||||||||
| Total | Average Monthly Annuity | Average Retirement Contributions | Average Years of Service (Civilian and Military Combined) | Age at annuity commencement date | ||||
| FERS | 37,839 | $1,383 | $9,753 | 20.4 | 60.8 | |||
| CSRS | 44,998 | $4,270 | $91,272 | 34.5 | 60.2 | |||
| Employee Annuitants on the Retirement Rolls | ||||||||
| Total | Average Monthly Annuity | Average Years of Service (Civilian and Military Combined) | Average Age | Percentage with FEHBP Coverage | ||||
| FERS | 391,455 | $1,097 | 17.5 | 66.3 | 58.8 | |||
| CSRS | 1,502,293 | $3,002 | 29.8 | 73.0 | 78.3 | |||
| Monthly Annuity Amount | |||
| Number | Percent of Total | Percent Men | |
| Under $1,000 | 33,362 | 17.7 | 51.5 |
| Under $2,000 | 799,343 | 42.2 | 52.8 |
| Under $3,000 | 1,278,050 | 67.5 | 58.6 |
| Under $4,000 | 1,539,858 | 81.3 | 61.0 |
| Under $5,000 | 1,695,947 | 89.6 | 62.3 |
| Under $6,000 | 1,789,137 | 94.5 | 63.1 |
| Under $7,000 | 1,843,383 | 97.3 | 63.7 |
| $7,000 and over | 50,365 | 2.7 | 83.4 |
| CSRS/FERS Annuitants, Age by Selected Demographics | |||
| Employee Annuitants On Rolls (Non-Disability) | Monthly Employee Annuity Average | Survivor Annuitants on Rolls (Adults) | |
| 30-34 | 5 | $1,363 | 99 |
| 35-39 | 9 | $1,249 | 337 |
| 40-44 | 45 | $1,273 | 1,124 |
| 45-49 | 1,105 | $2,226 | 3,525 |
| 50-54 | 16,134 | $2,942 | 9,048 |
| 55-59 | 118,755 | $3,416 | 18,943 |
| 60-64 | 327,295 | $3,105 | 33,710 |
| 65-69 | 332,232 | $2,812 | 44,843 |
| 70-74 | 275,383 | $2,661 | 62,788 |
| 75-79 | 236,229 | $2,527 | 88,187 |
| 80-84 | 185,547 | $2,401 | 114,718 |
| 85-89 | 131,089 | $2,374 | 114,240 |
| 90-94 | 55,823 | $2,378 | 58,049 |
| 95-99 | 11,604 | $2,348 | 14,444 |
| 100 and over | 1,295 | $2,200 | 1,999 |
(Photo by Flickr user Tax Credits)
NEXT STORY: FEHBP Enrollees: The Check Is Not in the Mail