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Guiding Principles

NASRA supports the following guiding principles to retirement security and public plan sustainability:

  • Participation of all relevant stakeholders, including government employers, their plans, their employees, plan beneficiaries and retirees, and other taxpayers in discussions and processes about the design and financing arrangements of public retirement plans

  • Policy-driven decision-making that recognizes the retirement security and workforce management purposes of public employee retirement systems, and which is based on objective and pertinent information that fairly reflects the long-term time horizon and economic effects of public plan financing, benefit adequacy, and benefit distributions

  • Tailored solutions, achieved by affected stakeholders working through the state and local legislative and regulatory processes

  • Retention of core, indispensable elements of public plan design, namely, mandatory participation, shared financing, targeted income replacement, pooled investment and longevity risks, and lifetime benefit payouts

  • Removal of federal policy barriers to the preservation of these central retirement plan design features in the public sector and the adoption of federal policies that encourage their inclusion in the private sector. 

Resolution adopted by NASRA Members, August 11, 2010 and further Amended August 9, 2016. 

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Become A Member

Becoming a member of NASRA offers a unique opportunity to join a community committed to the sound, efficient, and innovative stewardship of public retirement systems. Membership connects you with a network of professionals and experts, providing valuable insights into managing public retirement systems with a focus on sustainability and risk-averse strategies.

By joining NASRA, you gain the tools and resources to enhance the management of public retirement systems, ensuring their long-term success and reliability for generations to come.

What’s New at NASRA: Employee Contributions to Public Pension Plans

Employee contributions remain a central part of public pension financing, and the way those contributions are structured is subject to change depending each states' governance rules. . NASRA’s 2026 updated brief finds median employee contribution rates of 6.2 percent of pay for employees who participate in Social Security and 9.0 percent for those who do not. For employees who do not participate in Social Security, the public pension often plays a broader role in retirement security, effectively providing two of the traditional three legs of the retirement stool rather than one.

Since 2009, 41 states  increased employee contributions in at least one plan, while some states recently reduced rates for selected employees. Variable contributions are also becoming more common, with 26 plans in 17 states adjusting employee rates based on funding, plan costs, or other factors. The brief provides current trends and a state-by-state look at employee contribution requirements across public retirement systems.