February 2014

Just as teachers in Missouri cannot move between pension boundaries without incurring a financial penalty, teachers cannot move across state pension boundaries without incurring similar costs. This acts like a tariff that restricts the movement of human capital between pension systems.

As Chicago's pension funding is falling, the average teacher retirement benefit is rising. Not only do the retirement benefits come with an expensive price tag, but they're back-loaded for late-career teachers such that only a small percentage of teachers will receive a pension benefit in the first place.

To ensure the accuracy of pension plan assumptions, state retirement systems conduct regular “experience studies” to compare their assumptions with data about the actual numbers observed on the ground. Experience studies help ensure the accuracy of a plan by measuring any fluctuations in the field and proposing subsequent adjustments to plan assumptions. We unearthed over two decades worth of experience studies from North Dakota.