The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) released new data today showing the gap between the pension benefits of government employees and those in the private sector and is calling for nationwide changes to be made to public pension plans.
CTF custom-ordered data from Statistics Canada show that 87.1% of government employees have workplace pensions, up from 75.5% in 1977. Only 24.4% of non-government workers have workplace pension plans, down from 35.2% in 1977.
Shift to DC
What CTF really wants is to see the government pensions move from a DB configuration to a DC. According to CTF’s data, 81.9% of government workers with a pension have a DB plan, while only 12.7% of non-government workers have the same. The data also indicated that 4.2% of public sector workers have a DC plan, compared with 6.8% of those in the private sector.
CTF again called on governments to freeze and convert their unsustainable DB pension plans to less costly DC plans.
“Not only are government employees more likely to have workplace pensions, they typically have the ‘golden’ type—defined benefit plans,” said CTF federal director Gregory Thomas. “Considering most defined benefit pension plans in the country are running a deficit, it’s time for the government to follow the private sector and get out of them.”