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Public Sector Pensions and the Challenge of an Ageing Public Service Please cite this paper as: OECD (2007), "Public Sector Pensions and the Challenge of an Ageing Public Service", OECD Working Papers on Public Governance, 2007/2, OECD Publishing. doi:10.1787/285530706017 OECD Working Papers on Public Governance 2007/2 Public Sector Pensions and the Challenge of an Ageing Public Service OECD OECD PROJECT ON MANAGEMENT IN GOVERNMENT Working paper 2 PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS AND THE CHALLENGE OF AN AGEING PUBLIC SERVICE February 2007 ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT 1 GOV/PGC(2006)13 PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS AND THE CHALLENGE OF AN AGEING PUBLIC SERVICE This report is based on a report prepared for the OECD Public Governance Committee (30-31 October 2006) by Jonathan Kings with Edouard Turkisch and Nick Manning (OECD). It draws on a survey undertaken by the CSED Association (Coopération Sociale Européenne Développement), in collaboration with the OECD, using a questionnaire designed by the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It also includes additional material provided by Evelyne Misak (OECD) and Christine Leal (Coopération Sociale Européenne Développement). It has benefited from comments made by Monika Queisser (OECD) and Robert Palacios (World Bank). The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this report are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its member countries. 2 GOV/PGC(2006)13 TABLE OF CONTENTS PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS AND THE CHALLENGE OF AN AGEING PUBLIC SERVICE............. 2 SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................................... 4 MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF PUBLIC SERVICE AGEING: PENSION REFORM ......................... 6 Public sector pensions ................................................................................................................................. 6 The drivers of public sector pension scheme reform................................................................................... 7 Reform trends.............................................................................................................................................. 8 In parallel, employment reforms have changed pension entitlements ........................................................ 8 PENSION REFORMS TO ATTRACT AND RETAIN SKILLED STAFF ................................................ 10 Pensions and staff retention....................................................................................................................... 10 Pensions and the attractiveness of the public sector as an employer ........................................................ 10 Mobility between the private and public sectors ................................................................................... 11 Mobility between governments ............................................................................................................. 11 Pension reforms and mobility within the public sector ......................................................................... 12 Pension reforms and flexible working....................................................................................................... 12 CONCLUSION: PENSION REFORMS AND CAPACITY RETENTION ................................................ 15 Have pension reforms facilitated comparability between public and private sector employment? .......... 15 Are pension reforms playing their part in retaining capacity within an ageing public sector workforce? 16 GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................................................. 17 TECHNICAL ANNEXES ............................................................................................................................ 21 Annex 1: Common pension reforms ......................................................................................................... 21 Annex 2: Summary of country level public sector pension reforms ......................................................... 29 Annex 3: Pension rights in the context of international mobility.............................................................. 31 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 32 Boxes Box 1. Public service pensions schemes and national schemes .................................................................. 6 Box 2. Changing public sector employment regimes.................................................................................. 9 Box 3. Belgium: moving towards a supplementary scheme for contract workers.................................... 14 Box 4. Belgium's experience with age-based supplements....................................................................... 25 Box 5. Mobility between a Belgian pension scheme and an international organisation ........................... 31 3 GOV/PGC(2006)13 SUMMARY The consequences of an ageing workforce are magnified in the public sector because it generally has an older demographic profile than the private sector (OECD, 2006). The challenge of attracting and retaining capacity within the public service as large numbers of experienced public servants retire is set to be a growing concern in many OECD countries. This report looks at the degree to which pension reform may be assisting in meeting this challenge. All OECD countries have undertaken reform of their pension arrangements over the past few years. The reforms have affected all: the public sector, the private sector, the self employed and those outside the paid workforce. Because of the potential significance of public sector pension reform for the public sector the OECD commissioned a survey on pension schemes for public sector workers in selected OECD member countries. The survey was based on a questionnaire designed by the Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and was undertaken by the CSED Association (Coopération Sociale Européenne Développement), in collaboration with the OECD.1 There are three potential drivers of pension reform within the public sector. First and most self- evidently, fiscal concerns lie at the heart of the reforms in a number of countries, particularly in the context of ageing populations and ageing public sector workforces. OECD countries on average spend nearly 2% of GDP on public service pensions, although there is substantial variation around the mean (due largely to the differing relative size of the public sector in each economy). Irrespective of the types of measures adopted by national governments, in the face of ageing populations, cutting pension scheme costs remains one of the primary motivations for reform. Public sector pension schemes are also being reformed to achieve comparability with the private sector. Public sector employers were the first to afford their staff a certain form of security by granting them a pension intended to provide them with social protection when they were no longer able to work. That approach was justified historically on the grounds of the distinctive nature of public employment. The result is that in many countries the social welfare protection afforded to civil servants and full-time public sector employees is generally considered to be more advantageous than that enjoyed by the general population. 1. It should be noted that the purpose of the survey was to identify trends and impact of public sector pension reforms, very particularly in the context of ageing public sector workforces and as a complement to other OECD work (OECD, 2006). It did not undertake any fiscal or actuarial analysis. The pension schemes that country respondents described are those that cover the "core" public service. This means that reforms to these schemes are likely to be representative of wider pension reforms in the broader public sector – but it also means that comparisons must be treated with care as the unit of analysis varies significantly between countries. 4 GOV/PGC(2006)13 Finally, in principle at least, reforms could be designed to assist in the task of attracting and retaining capacity within the public service as many senior public servants retire. This third potential driver of pension reform is the primary focus of this report. The report looks only at arrangements at the national or federal level. It does not address the fiscal or actuarial implications of recent pension reforms. In examining the degree to which reforms have addressed the other challenges, it concludes in relation to achieving comparability that harmonisation has been only partial. It examines the argument that higher pensions can contribute to making the public service a more attractive employer, but suggests that increasing the attractiveness of public sector employment through enhancing pensions for all public servants is a distinctly expensive and untargeted approach. The argument for absolute comparability between the public and private sectors is certainly not universally accepted – but as the separate employment status of the public sector is challenged, the logic of a separate and particularly generous pension scheme falters. The report concludes that the primary contribution of pension reform to meeting
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