New budget-related documents from the White House spell out in more detail the proposals related to retirement and FEHB contained in the first budget release last week, specifying for example that a proposed increase in required employee contributions toward retirement would apply only to those under the FERS system.
Excluding those under CSRS—now only about 5 percent of the federal workforce—from the increase was proposed last year after years of proposals to increase required contributions under both systems. The stated goal is to make the enrollee and government shares equal by phasing up the former by 1 percentage point per year and bringing down the latter until they match.
The documents also say that since FERS employees hired after 2012 already are paying in more than those hired through that year, the increase for them would not be as steep. Also, they specify that in the special retirement programs for law enforcement officers and some others where the government’s current cost is still higher, the enrollee share would increase only by as much as other employees, and not enough to make the two shares equal.
