A report shows 44,000 CSRS employees as of the end of fiscal year 2022, including postal employees. Image: Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com
Nearly all current federal employees are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System, with just 2 percent under the older Civil Service Retirement System, says a report for Congress, and FERS now covers about half of retirees as well.
The Congressional Research Service report shows 44,000 CSRS employees as of the end of fiscal year 2022 in September of that year, compared with 2,788,000 under FERS; unlike some other counts of federal employment the totals include Postal Service employees.
All employees newly hired in 1984 and after were put in FERS, resulting in that becoming the majority system only 10 years later, the figures show, with FERS accounting for 76 percent of the workforce 10 years after that in 2004 and 91 percent another 10 years later in 2014.
The picture among retirees is different, however, with a nearly even split among the 2.2 million annuitants, and CSRS still covering 80 percent of survivor beneficiaries.
As of the end of fiscal 2022, less than 9 percent of CSRS employees were under age 60, with 55 percent age 65 or older, compared with about 84 percent and 5 percent of those under FERS. The average age of someone newly retiring under standard CSRS rules was 65.9, compared with 63.3 for new FERS retirees.
Other forms of retirement such as disability and mandatory retirement in some occupations lower the overall averages to 65.6 and 61.9.
The report – a statistical presentation only without policy recommendations – said the average monthly civil service annuity for CSRS retirees was $4,464 compared with $1,810 for FERS retirees, while the median amount—the point where half are above and half are below—was $3,897 compared with $1,452.
FERS however also includes Social Security and employer contributions toward Thrift Savings Plan accounts, features that were designed to essentially make up for the lower civil service annuity.
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