Does Mortality Differ Between Public and Private Sector Workers?

Alicia Munnell, Jean-Pierre Aubry and Geoffrey Sanzenbacher

State and Local Pension Plans Briefs from Center for Retirement Research

Abstract: Defined benefit plans pay pension benefits from retirement until death. Thus, the longer workers live, the higher the expense for the plan. On average, states and localities assume their workers will live slightly than longer private sector work ers. This brief asks a simple question: do state and local workers actually live longer on average than their private sector counterparts? If so, why? The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section explains the nature and limitations of the available data – the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. The second section presents the percentage of public and private sector workers ages 55-64 who die d within either an 11-year period or a separate 6-year period after being interviewed. The third section uses regression analysis to assess how various factors impact the likelihood of dying. The final section concludes that public sector workers – espe cially women – do live longer than their private sector counterparts and that most of the difference can be explained by the higher education levels of public sector workers.

Pages: 9 pages
Date: 2015-06
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