Retirement compensation for public employees in Colorado

Independence Institute ^ | May 2007 | Michael Mannino, Elizabeth Cooperman

[businessprofessor]

The Colorado Division of Human Resources (DHR) conducts an annual compensation survey to support a state policy that provides competitive total compensation to ensure a qualified and competent workforce. Because this survey is significantly flawed in its estimation of retirement compensation, the comparison between private and public sector compensation is distorted.

[businessprofessor]

Here is some good data about the compensation value of government pensions. These professors have used salary histories to estimate the deferred compensation value of government pensions in Colorado. The average deferred compensation is about $520,000 per retiree with administrative and higher paid professionals receiving about $900,000 of deferred compensation on average.