Industry News

On November 10, 2021, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released its report, Social Security Coverage of State and Local Government Employees. Over the years, there have been many proposals to make Social Security coverage mandatory for newly hired state and local government employees. As of 2018, about 72% of state and local government employees participated in Social Security; however, about 28% of these workers are not covered by Social Security through their government employment.

Every state has a combination of state and local government employees with and without Social Security coverage. As a result, every state would be affected by a Social Security coverage mandate. The impact on state and local plans and the net effect on total benefits would vary across plans as well as among individuals. 

Overall, in 2018, eight states accounted for nearly 73% of noncovered state and local government employees (California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio and Texas) and three states accounted for about 48% of noncovered state and local government employees (California, Ohio and Texas).

The report is available here.