The West Virginia Legislature is considering pension reform measures as a way of dealing with a $5.6 billion liability, according to the Register-Herald.
A joint House-Senate committee is studying various options mostly for new employees, including bumping the retirement age to 62 from 60, reducing benefits, and requiring employees contribute 6% instead of 4.5%. The changes, discussed last week at a meeting of the committee, are estimated to save about 2.5% of salaries for 36,000 workers enrolled in the Consolidated Public Retirement Board, an actuary said.
Though other states have frozen annual cost-of-living increases in pension plans, West Virginia does not currently offer those increases for teachers and employees, the paper said. The state also does not engage in collective bargaining with unions.
