Public pensions in Wisconsin
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Wisconsin information (2020) | |
Total contributions: $2,251,854,000 | |
Employee contributions: $1,038,276,000 | |
Government contributions: $1,213,578,000 | |
Total payments: $6,282,321,000 | |
Total cash and investment holdings: $137,795,944,000 | |
Number of state and local pension systems: 4 | |
Active membership: 275,755 | |
Inactive membership: 179,080 | |
Schlüsselbegriffe | |
Actuarial value of assets (AVA) | |
Unfunded actuarial accrued liability (UAAL) | |
Annual required contribution (ARC) | |
Discount rate • Funded ratio | |
Rate of return • Active member | |
Inactive member • OPEB | |
Hover over the above terms for definitions. | |
Note: This page utilizes information from a variety of sources. The information presented on this page reflects the most recent data available as of March 2022. |
Wisconsin public pensions are the state mechanism by which state and many local government employees in Wisconsin receive retirement benefits.
There were four public pension systems in Wisconsin as of 2020. Of these, one was a state-level program while the remaining three were administered at the local level. Membership in Wisconsin's various pension systems totaled 692,835, as of fiscal year 2020. Of these, 275,755 were active members.[1]
See the sections below for specific information on pension systems in Wisconsin:
- General information: This section outlines the different types of pensions systems available in the state, as well as membership information.
- Contributions: This section details the contributions made to state-level pension systems, and the source of the contributions.
- Payments: This section details the payments made by the pensions systems, and details what kinds of payments were made.
- Cash and investment holdings: This section provides information about the total amount of cash and investments the state's pension systems have, and what kinds of investments they have made.
- Pension health: This section outlines the findings of two reports regarding pension health, including how much liabilities the state pension systems have and how funded they are.
General information
- See also: Pension data, U.S. Census
Wisconsin had one state pension plan as of 2020, according to the Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds:
- Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS)
In addition to the aforementioned state-level pension system, there were three locally administered pension systems in Wisconsin.[2]
The table below provides general pension system information for Wisconsin.
General pension system information in Wisconsin | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Systems | Total members* | Active members | Inactive members | |||
State | Local | Mitglieder | Percent of total | Mitglieder | Percent of total | ||
2020[1] | 1 | 3 | 692,835 | 275,755 | 39.80 | 179,080 | 25.85 |
2016[3] | 1 | 3 | 443,785 | 273,015 | 61.52 | 170,770 | 38.48 |
*This total also includes beneficiaries receiving periodic benefit payments who are not considered ‘active’ or ‘inactive.’ Source: United States Census Bureau |
Contributions
Pension contributions are the funds paid into pension systems. These contributions come from the employer (in the case of public pensions, the government) and employees. Investment earnings are the main source of increases in the fund and are listed separately in the rightmost column in the below table.
In the fiscal year 2020, total contributions of $2.3 billion were made to Wisconsin's state and local pension systems. Of this amount, $1.0 billion came from employees. The remainder came from state and local governments. The table below provides information about pension contributions in Wisconsin in the fiscal year 2020. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000 ($240,000 is equal to $240,000,000).[1]
Pension contributions in Wisconsin (dollars in thousands) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Total contributions from employees and employers | Employee contributions | Government contributions | Earnings on investments | ||
Contributions | Percentage of total | Contributions | Percentage of total | |||
2020[1] | $2,251,854 | $1,038,276 | 46.11% | $1,213,578 | 53.89% | $2,597,133 |
2016[3] | $2,075,028 | $986,585 | 47.55% | $1,088,443 | 52.45% | -$239,932 |
Source: United States Census Bureau |
Payments
Payments are the amounts paid to pension recipients by their pension plans. Pension payments include benefits and withdrawals. Benefits are the regular payments made by a pension plan to the plan's recipients. Pension beneficiaries may also withdraw funds if they leave the system before they receive regular benefits.
In the fiscal year 2020, Wisconsin's state and local pension systems made payments totaling $6.3 billion. The table below provides pension payment information for Wisconsin in the fiscal year 2020. The columns labeled "Benefits," and "Withdrawals," are subsets of total payments. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000 ($240,000 is equal to $240,000,000).[1]
Pension payments in Wisconsin (dollars in thousands) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Total payments | Vorteile | Withdrawals | Administrative costs |
2020[1] | $6,282,321 | $6,282,321 | $51,338 | $939,737 |
2016[3] | $5,796,298 | $5,324,949 | $43,829 | $427,520 |
Source: United States Census Bureau |
Unfunded liabilities
- See also: Other post-employment benefits, data
In addition to standard pension payments, some plans may offer pensioners additional benefits. These benefits, sometimes referred to as other post-employment benefits, or OPEBs, consist of health insurance, life insurance, or other benefits that the pensioner may have received while employed. The cost of these benefits can prove complicated for actuaries to calculate because of the changes in fields like medicine, which can result in large changes in spending year to year. This, coupled with the normal challenges in calculating and meeting pension requirements, can result in funding shortages—or unfunded liabilities—for pension plans.
According to Pew Charitable Trust, unfunded liabilities totaled nearly $1.3 trillion throughout the country in 2019. Wisconsin was reported to have about -$3.2 billion in unfunded liabilities. Wisconsin's funding ratio (total liabilities: total assets) was 103.0%.[4]
The chart below displays the unfunded liabilities for Wisconsin. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000. For instance, $300 translates to $300,000.
Unfunded liabilities in Wisconsin (dollars in thousands) | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Unfunded liabilities | Funding ratio | |||||
2019[4] | -$3,224,456 | 103.0% | |||||
2016[5] | $893,000 | 99.0% | |||||
Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts |
Cash and investment holdings
- See also: Pension data, U.S. Census
Investments are a crucial part of the pension process. The goal is that, by investing pension contributions, the pensioner will receive more money when he or she retires than he or she and the employer were able to contribute. These investments are made in cash, short-term investments, securities like equities and bonds, or other assets. Cash investments are usually low-risk, short-term investments that have a lower rate of return than other types of investments. Other short-term investments are riskier than cash investments, but have the potential for greater returns. Securities can refer to stocks, bonds, or other types of financial certificates that hold some sort of financial value. As the values of these securities change, they can be traded to make a profit. While there are other applications of securities investments, this represents one of the most common practices.[6][7][8]
As of the fiscal year 2020, Wisconsin's state and local pension systems held $137.8 billion in total cash and investment holdings. The table below summarizes pension system cash and investment holdings for Wisconsin. The columns labeled "Total cash and short-term investments" and "Total other investments" are subsets of the grand total. All dollar amounts displayed should be multiplied by 1,000 ($240,000 is equal to $240,000,000).[1]
Total cash and investment holdings in Wisconsin (dollars in thousands) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Grand total | Total cash and short-term investments | Total other investments | |
2020[1] | $137,795,944 | $4,786,568 | $133,009,376 | |
2016[3] | $98,152,527 | $3,151,259 | $95,001,268 | |
Source: United States Census Bureau |
Pension health
- See also: Pension health in Wisconsin and Public pension health by state
Pension health is a term used to describe the fiscal condition of a pension system. It can be difficult to gauge pension health in each state; studies use a variety of calculations to determine a pension system's average liabilities, unfunded liabilities, funded ratio, and other metrics. To learn more about pension health in Wisconsin, click here.
Recent legislation
The following is a list of recent pension policy bills that have been introduced in or passed by the Wisconsin state legislature. To learn more about each of these bills, click the bill title. This information is provided by BillTrack50 and LegiScan.
'Note: Due to the nature of the sorting process used to generate this list, some results may not be relevant to the topic. If no bills are displayed below, then no legislation pertaining to this topic has been introduced in the legislature recently.
Recent news
This section links to a Google news search for the term "Wisconsin + public + pensions"
See also
- Public pensions in the United States
- Historical Wisconsin pension information
- Wisconsin state budget and finances
- Public policy in Wisconsin
- Tax policy in Wisconsin
- Pension statistics
- Pension health in Wisconsin
- Public pensions
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 United States Census Bureau, 2020 Annual Survey of Public Pensions: State & Local Tables accessed February 23, 2022
- ↑ Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, "WRS Retirement Benefit," accessed March 28, 2022
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 United States Census Bureau, "State- and Locally-Administered Defined Benefit Pension Systems - All Data by State and Level of Government: 2016," accessed August 20, 2017
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Pew Charitable Trusts, "The State Pension Funding Gap: Plans Have Stabilized in Wake of Pandemic" accessed February 23, 2022
- ↑ The Pew Charitable Trusts, "The State Pension Funding Gap: 2016," accessed April 12, 2018
- ↑ Investopedia, "Cash investment definition," accessed February 23, 2022
- ↑ Investopedia, "Short-term investments definition," accessed February 23, 2022
- ↑ Investopedia, "Securities," accessed February 23, 2022
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