Public Pensions See Relief from Pandemic-Era Staffing Challenges as Public Sector Wages Rebound

• By: admin
• On: 09/23/2024 07:18:44
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Media Contact: Lizzy Lees (llees@ncpers.org)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Public pension funds are beginning to see relief from ongoing recruitment and retention challenges as they embrace highly desirable benefits and begin to see the effects of the recent surge in public sector wage growth, new data from the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) and CBIZ reveals. The recent increases in public sector wages represent a much-needed correction after lagging behind private sector wage growth in the wake of the pandemic.

NCPERS and CBIZ partnered for the first time this year to execute the 2024 Public Pension Compensation Survey, capturing in-depth compensation data on 88 common positions at public pension funds, as well as comprehensive data on benefits, salary increases, and bonuses.

The survey, conducted from May through July, received responses from 158 public pension funds that collectively administer 3,788 public employee retirement systems on behalf of 22,561,043 active and retired public servants. These organizations have a combined 18,969 full-time equivalent (FTE) employee positions and more than $4.5 trillion in assets under management.

“By combining NCPERS' deep understanding of the public pension sector with CBIZ's expertise in compensation evaluation, we've been able to deliver the most robust dataset yet. This marks a significant step forward in providing comprehensive, actionable data to help public pension funds enhance their compensation strategies and better navigate the challenges of recruitment and retention,” said Hank Kim, executive director and counsel for NCPERS.

The results are presented in the just-released report, Public Pension Insights 2024: A Comprehensive Survey on Compensation Trends, as well as an interactive dashboard. The dashboard enables organizations to filter the data in a number of ways—such as region, number of fund staff, or assets under management—to help optimize the mix of funds to which they would like to compare themselves.

NCPERS will host a webinar on October 3^rd to highlight the results of the survey and discuss the public pension industry's compensation and benefits landscape. Key findings from the survey include:

• Public pension funds are beginning to see some relief from the recruitment and retention challenges faced during the pandemic. Almost half of respondents (49.3 percent) indicated they are having no problems attracting and recruiting skilled staff, up from 38 percent of respondents to NCPERS 2022 Public Pension Compensation Survey. However, 12.3 percent of respondents indicated that recruitment and retention is still a significant problem.
• Pension funds are offering highly desirable benefits to help support recruitment and retention efforts, and it seems to be paying off. Just over 93 percent of responding organizations offer a defined benefit plan to employees.
• The workforce has changed significantly in recent years, with many employees putting increased value on remote and flexible work. This year's survey shows that pension funds are meeting those needs, with 80.6 percent offering a flexible schedule and/or remote work.
• The recent surge in public sector wage growth, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Employment Cost Index (ECI), represents a much-needed correction after lagging behind private sector wage growth in the wake of the pandemic. The ECI shows that in the 12-month period ending June 2024, the private sector saw only a 3.9 percent increase in compensation compared to 4.9 percent in the public sector, consistent with the results of this survey.
• Funds that participated in the 2023 CBIZ Public Pension Compensation Survey forecasted, on average, salary increases of 3.6 percent for the coming year, but the results of this survey show a much larger jump, with an average increase of 4.9 percent given in the most recent salary review.
• Looking at total cash compensation wage growth by department, the average overall increase was 8.3 percent, with Communications, Legal, and Human Resources departments experiencing the largest increases year over year.

For further insights, register now to join us for the webinar or order your copy of the report today.

About NCPERS
The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems (NCPERS) works to promote and protect pensions by focusing on advocacy, research, and education for the benefit of public sector pension stakeholders. With approximately 500 plans, plan sponsors, and other stakeholder members throughout the United States and Canada, NCPERS is the largest trade association for public pensions. Organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, NCPERS is a unique network of trustees, administrators, public officials, and investment professionals who collectively oversee approximately $5 trillion in retirement funds.

About CBIZ
CBIZ is a leading provider of financial, insurance and advisory services to businesses throughout the United States. Financial services include accounting, tax, government health care consulting, transaction advisory, risk advisory, and valuation services. Insurance services include employee benefits consulting, retirement plan consulting, property and casualty insurance, payroll, and human capital consulting. With more than 120 offices in 33 states, CBIZ is one of the largest accounting and insurance brokerage providers in the U.S. For more information, visit www.cbiz.com.

CBIZ's Talent & Compensation Solutions division has deep roots working with public pension funds both through compensation consulting and executive retained search (as EFL Associates). The Compensation Consulting team has a track record of working with public pension funds to benchmark market-competitive compensation and design compensation programs that are aligned with the compensation philosophy and help achieve total rewards goals and objectives. EFL Associates has successfully completed more public pension leadership and investment management searches than any firm in the country.
 

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