Facts You Can Use:
- Over the last 25 years, PERA has paid out $28.8 billion in benefits, while receiving $24.5 billion in contributions and $31.6 billion in investment income. PERA has more than $31 billion in assets.
- Contributions from employers (taxpayers) accounted for 21.2% of PERA’s revenue while contributions from employees accounted for 21.4% and return on investments accounted for 57.4%. Of PERA payments, 99% were benefits and only 1% were expenses.
- PERA has 194,000 active members, 82,500 benefit recipients, and 160,000 inactive members totaling some 436,500 people, about 9% of the total Colorado population.
- For every $1 contributed to PERA by the employers, $3.40 in benefits are returned to the Colorado economy. PERA is anything but a drain on the economy. It invests worldwide and returns the benefits to Coloadoans.
- Unlike most private pension plans, Colorado PERA members contribute to their pension plan.
- To counter the media that talks about early PERA retirements: 17% of Americans are out of workforce by 55 while only 3.65% of PERA retirees are under age 55.
- The average PERA retiree is 68.8 years old and has 23.2 years of service.
- PERA paid more than $2.6 billion to beneficiaries in 2008 with 93% of it paid to residents in Colorado.
- PERA members do not pay into Social Security (PERA was founded five years before Social Security). Federal law did not permit public employees from participating in Social Security until the early 1950’s.
- PERA rate of return over the last 25 years has been 9 percent, including at least three periods of negative returns.
- Compare PERA’s rate of return of a -26% in 2008 to the broad stock market Wilshire 5000 index loss of 37.2% --- bad, but not as bad as it could have been.
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