How CalSTRS and CalPERS pensions are protected from inflation
Governor signs CFT-sponsored legislation to provide earliest CalSTRS retirees another supplemental check
Both CalSTRS and CalPERS have mechanisms in place to guard a retiree’s defined benefit pension against eroding purchasing power. The first is a cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, and the second is a “floor” below which the buying power of a pension cannot fall. Now thanks to a CFT-sponsored bill recently signed by Governor Newsom, CalSTRS retirees from earlier decades will see additional relief.
Governor provides flexibility to hire retired teachers, staff during pandemic
Allows retirees to return to work within 180 days of retirement
On August 16, 2021, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order N-12-21 to provide additional flexibility to hire retired K-12 teachers, community college faculty, and classified staff during the COVID-19 State of Emergency.
CalPERS bails out of private prisons
Drops $12 million investment in GEO Group and CoreCivic
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, CalPERS, recently rattled the cages of the for-profit prison industry by divesting nearly $10 million of stock in the country’s two biggest private jailers.
The August sell-off came on the heels of the California State Teachers Retirement System, CalSTRS, dropping its $12 million investment in GEO Group and CoreCivic (formerly known as the Corrections Corporation of America).
Michael Bilbrey for CalPERS Board Member
This election will be very close. Every vote counts. Here’s how to cast your vote
The CFT has endorsed and strongly encourages your support for Michael Bilbrey in the runoff election for the CalPERS Board of Administration.
- As a long-time labor leader, Bilbrey has demonstrated his commitment over many years to protecting defined benefit pension plans and ensuring affordable healthcare.
Pension battles shift from ballots to courts
Tracking the latest strategies that attack public employee pensions
For years, people have been trying to attack pensions with ballot propositions, said Doug Orr, an economics professor at City College of San Francisco and the chair of the of the CFT Retirement Policy Committee. Those propositions always go down in defeat, Orr said, and now those attacks on pensions are coming to the courts.
CFT advisory committee analyzing impact of CalSTRS funding gap
The Legislature has begun public hearings to address a $71 billion funding gap in the pension system for K-14 teachers. Without an increase in contributions, CalSTRS predicts its assets will be depleted in about 30 years.
Don’t sign! State initiative attacks public employee pensions
San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed is mounting a major attack on educators’ pensions. He has filed a voter initiative with the Secretary of State and may start collecting signatures in early 2014 to qualify it for the November ballot.
New law! Significant pension changes for CalPERS members start January 1
Classified employees with questions about the new Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 may find answers on the Frequently Asked Questions page of the CalPERS website. Here are some answers to common questions.
The new law requires that new employees of public schools and community colleges contribute at least 50 percent of the total normal cost or the same contribution rate as “similarly situated” employees, whichever is higher.
New employees to face reduced retirement benefits
Workers not yet hired will take biggest hit under law passed by legislators with no input from public employee unions
A new law passed in the final hours of the legislative session makes sweeping changes to public employee pensions that impose most of the changes on workers not yet hired, creating a two-tier system in the workplace where two groups of workers doing the same work receive different retirement benefits.