Pension Enhancements and the Retention of Public Employees

ILR Review ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory Koedel ◽  
P. Brett Xiang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Employee Retention ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Public Pension Plans

The authors use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States—teaching—to examine the effect of pension enhancements on employee retention. Specifically, they study a 1999 enhancement to the benefit formula for public school teachers in St. Louis, Missouri, that resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in their incentives to remain in covered employment. To identify the effect of the enhancement on teacher retention, the analysis leverages the fact that the strength of the incentive increase varied across the workforce depending on how far teachers were from retirement eligibility when it was enacted. The results indicate that the St. Louis enhancement—which was structurally similar to enhancements that were enacted in other public pension plans across the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s—was not a cost-effective way to increase employee retention.

Don't Blame the Bureaucracy!

1983 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Brinton Milward ◽  
Hal G. Rainey
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Special Interest ◽  
The United States ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Public Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Special Interest Politics ◽  
Public Bureaucracy

ABSTRACTPublic agencies and public employees are increasingly berated as inept and inefficient. We argue that the public bureaucracy in the United States is more valuable and effective than generally recognized. Where public agencies do perform badly, the problem is often due to external factors. We discuss the oversimplified calls for more businesslike efficiency in government, the value complexity which complicates evaluation of the public bureaucracy, and the higher standards imposed on the public sector. We also discuss the challenges imposed on public agencies by special interest politics, an overload of highly complex assignments, and adverse public stereotypes. The danger of overlooking these issues is that we will continue to have a huge, active public sector, and decisions about its role and management must not be determined by oversimplification and stereotype.

Pension and Health Benefits for Public-Sector Workers

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee A. Craig
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Health Benefits ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Defined Benefit ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Public Sector Workers

In the United States, retirement and health benefits make up a substantial proportion of the total compensation of public-sector workers. This chapter explores the history and the main characteristics of such retirement and health benefits, as they have developed in the United States. As shown, on average, these benefits tend to be more valuable than those provided to private-sector workers. Public-sector workers are more likely than their private-sector counterparts to be covered by a retirement plan and by employer-provided health insurance. Public-sector pension plans are more likely to be defined benefit plans than are private-sector plans. Many public-sector employers have promised their employees more in benefits than they have set aside to pay for those benefits. Estimates suggest that the 2,670 federal, state, and local retirement plans currently in operation are underfunded collectively by as much as $5 trillion, and public-sector health plans are probably underfunded by roughly $1 trillion.

scholarly journals The Origin and Scale of Gender Inequality: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Radford
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public School ◽  
Job Performance ◽  
Gender Inequality ◽  
Natural Experiment ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
And Behavior

In the United States, women make roughly 75% of what men make. This inequality is reduced to roughly 92% once factors like occupation and job performance are controlled. The central debate over which number is correct has been whether these occupational and behavioral inequalities are related to gender or incidental to it. This study uses a natural experiment from a crowdfunding website for public school teachers to answer this question. The study shows there is no occupational and behavioral inequality in the likelihood of funding when teachers are anonymous. Yet, there is substantial inequality after they are identified as “Mr. Smith” or “Ms. Jones.” These results indicate gender gaps by occupation and behavior only occur as a result of exposure to gender and that estimates of gender inequality are likely under-inflated by thirty percent.

scholarly journals The Gendered and Heterosexist Evolution of the Teacher Exemplar in the United States: Equity Implications for LGBTQ and Gender Nonconforming Teachers

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Kahn ◽  
Paul C. Gorski
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
Legal Context ◽  
Sexual Orientations ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender

<p>Challenges confront lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender public school teachers or those who are perceived as such or who desire to be open about their sexual orientations or gender identities or expression. Teachers who do not conform to gender and sexual orientation norms currently are and historically have been the subject of persecution, urban myths, and general hysteria—part of bigger efforts to normalize heterosexuality and cisgender-ness through the development of a distinctive “exemplar” related to who teachers should be. We examine the related historical  and legal context of gender and sexuality in schools and then offer suggestions regarding how to redress the lingering impacts of gender- and heteronormativity.</p>

Rationalising industrial action: how Ugandan public school teachers and public university lecturers explain their engagement in industrial action

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Obed Kambasu
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Public University ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Industrial Action ◽  
University Lecturers

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed light on the rising waves of workplace militancy in the public sector and to provide insights into the perceptions that frame justification for industrial action among Ugandan public sector employees.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews and documentary analysis, analysed qualitatively, as well as a review of theoretical and empirical literature.FindingsPublic school teachers and public university lecturers in Uganda who frequently engage in industrial action mainly rationalise their engagement by the absence, or the ineffectiveness of alternative conflict resolution mechanisms. The findings also show that industrial action, even in resource-constrained settings like Uganda, is stimulated more by the desire to achieve equity rather than by the basic desire to improve working conditions. It is also notable that new, often unstructured, forms of workplace militancy continue to emerge in the public sector, and waves of industrial action are shifting from the industrial to the public sector.Practical implicationsWhereas industrial action is a protected labour right, the findings of this research strongly suggest that public employees do not necessarily enjoy their right to engage, but only reluctantly take industrial action as a “last resort”. The findings will, therefore, help public managers and policymakers to appreciate their responsibility in reducing the compulsion for industrial action among public employees.Originality/valueThis paper provides a general explanation for industrial action from the perspective of the people involved, rather than explaining the causality of specific strike actions. At a time when industrial action is generally declining in the developed industrialised states, this paper sheds light on the rise in collective action in developing countries and especially in the public sector.

Dimensions of Public Sector Pay Policies in the United States and Sweden

1988 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lois Recascino Wise
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Central Government ◽  
The United States ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Social Orientation ◽  
Social Equality ◽  
The Third ◽  
Third Dimension

Three dimensions for analyzing public sector pay administration are used to examine central government pay administration in Sweden and the United States of America. On the first dimension, market posture, both countries are found to fall short of their espoused policy, comparability. Greater consistency is found on the second dimension, social orientation, where both countries have pursued the goal of social equality. The equilization of salary levels across society is far greater in Sweden in keeping with the socialist objectives of wage solidarity. The third dimension, reward structure, shows the greatest distance between the two countries with the struggle to implement performance-contingent pay underway in the U.S. while Swedes continue to rely on longevity for pay increases.

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