Pension Quick Facts

Did you know there are almost 312,000 active public employees in Minnesota contributing to a public pension fund and over 202,000 retirees, survivors and disabled people relying on a pension check? That is over 11 percent of the state’s population, so we better figure this out, and soon.

PENSION QUICK FACTS 2015 and Figures from Keeping the Promise: Securing Retirement Benefits for Current and Future Public Employees:

  • Unfunded liability in 2013 $17.3 billion; in 2014 it went up to $17.6 billion (see Figure 1)
  • The unfunded liability may actually be over $43 billion (see Figure 2)
  • Minnesota has $0.76 on the dollar to pay pensions (see Figure 1)
  • Total Requirements for 2014 were $2.6 billion but Minnesota only paid $2.2 billion, with a deficiency of $377 million
  • Minnesota has missed the full annual contribution since 2003 by hundreds of millions each year (see Figure 7)
  • The unfunded liability ($1.27 billion)  was almost equal to the normal cost + expenses ($1.29 billion)
  • A large chunk of the contributions in 2014 were allocated to the amortized unfunded liability ($897 billion) but the unfunded liability just keeps growing (see Figure 5)
  • Employees paid $386 million and employers paid $511 million of the unfunded liability payment of $897 million (seeFigure 5)
  • Minnesotans kicked in an additional $110 million in direct state aid and employer contributions in 2014 to prop up some funds (see Figure 4)

Based on actuarial valuations, Total for All Plans as reported 2/18/2015 by the Legislative Commission on Pensions and Retirement (LCPR) Individual funds will be covered elsewhere.