NCPERS Seeks Pension Fund Participation in Compensation Data-Collection Effort

The National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems announced it is working with CBIZ, a financial services firm, to collect survey data on public pensions’ compensation scales.

The survey will be distributed in May and will ask more than 600 public retirement systems to provide compensation information “for more than 80 positions commonly found at public pensions,” NCPERS said in a statement. The survey will be in the field until “early summer” and will be distributed by email as a spreadsheet. The survey will capture information on salaries, bonuses, and benefits.

NCPERS hopes the survey will serve “as a key resource to help public pensions of all sizes make informed decisions about compensation, benefits, and hiring strategies.” NCPERS’ last compensation survey indicated that “nearly 60 percent of public pensions are experiencing challenges with recruitment and retention.”

The survey results will be available for free to any pension fund that participates. Plans that do not participate may purchase the final report from NCPERS.

 “We hope to increase transparency into compensation and benefits packages at state and local pension plans to help identify what resources are needed to attract and retain qualified, high-functioning staff,” said Hank Kim, the executive director and counsel at NCPERS, in a statement.