ALBANYNew York’s state and local government employees pay a smaller share of pension costs, but collect higher benefits, than public employees in other states, according to a Public Policy Institute analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
State and local government retirees in New York collected an average $23,891 in pension benefits in 2005, some 16 percent above the national average, according to the Institute.
New York’s state and local governments contributed a total of $6.9 billion in taxpayer funding for pensions in 2004-05, according to the Census Bureau. That was up from $4.2 billion the previous year, and $1.5 billion in 2001.
New York government employees contributed just over $1 billion in 2005, less than 4 percent of total receipts to the state’s pension systems. Nationwide, state and local government workers contributed an average 9 percent of pension fund revenue.
The New York State figures include data for 14 separate pension funds. Those include the Common Retirement Fund, covering most state and municipal employees in New York; and the Teachers Retirement System, which covers most public-school teachers and some other public employees.
More than 732,000 New York state and local government workers collected public pensions in 2005. That figure represented 10.6 percent of the nationwide total of state and local government pension recipients; New York's population that year was 6.6 percent of the U.S. population.
Average pension for state and local government employees, 2005 State Employee contributions as % of total receipts Rank Averagebenefit Rank, employee contributions as % of total receipts 1 Connecticut $28,170 6 16% 2 Colorado 26,527 32 9% 3 Nevada 25,953 46 3% 4 New Jersey 25,953 3 18% 5 Rhode Island 25,080 11 13% 6 California 24,244 31 9% 7 Alaska 24,014 24 11% 8 NEW YORK 23,891 45 4% 9 Oregon 22,776 50 0% 10 Illinois 22,610 10 14% 11 Georgia 22,543 34 8% 12 Wisconsin 22,286 38 6% 13 Texas 21,480 22 12% 14 Ohio 21,100 21 12% 15 Massachusetts 20,902 12 13% 16 Pennsylvania 20,385 28 10% 17 Hawaii 20,310 44 4% 18 Minnesota 20,032 26 10% 19 Arizona 19,326 7 16% 20 Maine 19,281 27 10% 21 Florida 18,963 49 1% 22 New Mexico 18,630 9 14% 23 Missouri 18,327 30 9% 24 Kentucky 18,199 2 18% 25 Maryland 18,099 40 6% 26 Washington 17,754 43 4% 27 Nebraska 17,577 13 13% 28 Louisiana 17,567 23 11% 29 Mississippi 17,474 8 15% 30 Michigan 17,088 41 5% 31 Utah 16,737 48 1% 32 Alabama 16,658 20 12% 33 South Carolina 16,401 4 17% 34 Virginia 16,390 47 2% 35 Arkansas 16,207 42 5% 36 Oklahoma 15,991 16 12% 37 North Carolina 15,889 15 12% 38 New Hampshire 15,486 1 22% 39 Delaware 15,003 39 6% 40 Idaho 13,195 18 12% 41 Tennessee 13,065 37 7% 42 Indiana 12,900 29 10% 43 South Dakota 12,556 35 8% 44 Vermont 12,423 17 12% 45 Wyoming 12,384 25 11% 46 West Virginia 12,348 36 8% 47 Montana 12,077 5 17% 48 Kansas 11,741 19 12% 49 North Dakota 11,661 14 13% 50 Iowa 11,591 33 9% U.S. average $20,474 9%
The Census data used in the Institute's analysis are available at www.census.gov/govs/www/retire.html.
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