The brief’s key findings are:
- Since the financial crisis, 74 percent of state plans and 57 percent of large local plans have cut benefits or raised employee contributions to curb rising costs.
- Plans with a larger pension cost burden and lower initial employee contributions were more likely to enact such changes.
- And, among plans that made changes, those in states with the strongest legal protections for current workers were more likely to limit the cuts to new hires.