Tension with pensions: Barriers to sound postal pension risk management
In a new policy study, R Street commercial freedom fellow, Nick Zaiac takes a look at the state of Postal pensions today and barriers to reform. He goes on to include recommendations for the USPS pension system moving forward.
The paper argues that allowing postal pensions to be invested like pension money of other government workers would fix most of the under-funding problem. With pensions fully funded, reforms to the postal service business model would be much easier.
The author adds, “[p]ostal law that mandates extra-conservative use of postal savings puts letter carriers and postmasters at greater risk of retirement income being reduced in the indeterminate future. Changing this policy and applying pension investment rules typical of other government employers is thus a minimally-controversial postal reform option for federal legislators.”
