Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience

In 27 out of 34 OECD member countries, there is institutionally separate retirement-income provision for some or all public-sector workers. But the scope of these pension schemes varies significantly: from a modest top-up to the national pension ar...

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Main Author: Whitehouse, Edward
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26884076/pensions-public-sector-employees-lessons-oecd-countries’-experience
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25286
id okr-10986-25286
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-252862021-06-14T10:15:57Z Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience Whitehouse, Edward pensions public employment demographics labor mobility In 27 out of 34 OECD member countries, there is institutionally separate retirement-income provision for some or all public-sector workers. But the scope of these pension schemes varies significantly: from a modest top-up to the national pension arrangements (covering private-sector workers as well) to entirely independent retirement-income regimes. Average expenditure on these schemes amounts to about 1.5 percent of GDP, or nearly a quarter of total public pension spending. Public-sector pension reform is an issue of great political importance in many countries. Central governments’ workforces are ageing rapidly in all but four of the 26 countries for which data are available. One in three of central-government employees were aged 50 and over in 2009, compared with 22 percent in 1995. This rapid ageing is pushing up the cost of pension schemes at a time when many OECD countries are embarking on fiscal consolidation. This paper examines the arguments and the options for reforming public-sector pension schemes from an international viewpoint. It assesses five different policies to reduce expenditures or increase contribution revenues, showing how these can have very different effects in a public-sector scheme than with national retirement-income arrangements. 2016-10-27T20:21:59Z 2016-10-27T20:21:59Z 2016-10 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26884076/pensions-public-sector-employees-lessons-oecd-countries’-experience http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25286 English en_US Social Protection and Labor Discussion Paper;No. 1612 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Working Paper Europe
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic pensions
public employment
demographics
labor mobility
spellingShingle pensions
public employment
demographics
labor mobility
Whitehouse, Edward
Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience
geographic_facet Europe
relation Social Protection and Labor Discussion Paper;No. 1612
description In 27 out of 34 OECD member countries, there is institutionally separate retirement-income provision for some or all public-sector workers. But the scope of these pension schemes varies significantly: from a modest top-up to the national pension arrangements (covering private-sector workers as well) to entirely independent retirement-income regimes. Average expenditure on these schemes amounts to about 1.5 percent of GDP, or nearly a quarter of total public pension spending. Public-sector pension reform is an issue of great political importance in many countries. Central governments’ workforces are ageing rapidly in all but four of the 26 countries for which data are available. One in three of central-government employees were aged 50 and over in 2009, compared with 22 percent in 1995. This rapid ageing is pushing up the cost of pension schemes at a time when many OECD countries are embarking on fiscal consolidation. This paper examines the arguments and the options for reforming public-sector pension schemes from an international viewpoint. It assesses five different policies to reduce expenditures or increase contribution revenues, showing how these can have very different effects in a public-sector scheme than with national retirement-income arrangements.
format Working Paper
author Whitehouse, Edward
author_facet Whitehouse, Edward
author_sort Whitehouse, Edward
title Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience
title_short Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience
title_full Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience
title_fullStr Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience
title_full_unstemmed Pensions for Public-Sector Employees : Lessons from OECD Countries’ Experience
title_sort pensions for public-sector employees : lessons from oecd countries’ experience
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2016
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/10/26884076/pensions-public-sector-employees-lessons-oecd-countries’-experience
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25286
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