Pensions for Public Employees

Abstract

During 1918–20 twenty-four states enacted some form of pension legislation for public officials and employees. Congress established a retirement system for civil service employees. Various Canadian provinces, several British colonial governments, and a few European states legislated in favor of civil pensions.In the United States this recent activity is the culmination of a half century of agitation, experimentation and controversy in the matter of civil pensions, whether national, state, county or municipal. Private pensions in various American industries have doubtless favorably influenced the development of government pensions.This development has resulted in the use of many conflicting definitions of the term “pension.” Due to some aversion to that word, many confusing substitute terms have been used such as: retirement system, vocational insurance, deferred pay, indefinite leave of absence, retiring salary, graduated bonus, gratuity, annuity, superannuation allowance, service relief, old age assurance, provident fund, actuarial equivalent, and public officers' guarantee fund. As used in this article the term civil pension is intended to imply a regular allowance granted to a person for that person's maintenance or the maintenance of one or more persons dependent on the pensioner, that allowance being usually paid in consideration of the pensioner's meritorious services to the grantee; but it may be granted as a deferred wage or salary, as an annuity or as a form of regularly paid charity without reference to any consideration of gratuity, of wages, or of deferred dividends.