Federal Pensions: Relationship Between Retiree Pensions and Final Salaries
Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO responded to a series of questions about federal pension costs and retirement policy, focusing on: (1) the number of federal retirees, if any, whose pensions have come to exceed the final salaries that they earned while working; (2) why these retirees' pensions came to exceed their final salaries; (3) the difference, if any, in these retirees' pension amounts if current cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) policy that is, the COLA policy enacted in 1984, which established the formula and schedule used today by the office of Personnel Management (OPM), had been in effect without interruption since 1962; and (4) any difference in the number of retirees whose pensions would have exceeded their final salaries.