This brief, drawn from a longer report, shows how state and local government employees in Louisiana would likely fare in a cash balance retirement plan that was enacted by the state legislature but invalidated by the courts. Results show that a slight majority of state employees would do worse in the cash balance plan than the existing traditional defined benefit plan. However, about three-fourths would fare better under an alternative reform that extends Social Security to state employees and provides a smaller cash balance plan.
The Urban Institute
Owen Haaga, Richard W. Johnson, and Benjamin G. Southgate
June 4, 2015