Retirement security

Most full-time classified employees are members of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and are eligible to receive retirement income through a defined-benefit pension. CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund with more than $245 billion in assets. It administers retirement and health benefit plans covering approximately 1.5 million active and retired California public employees and their families.

Employees’ pension fund threatened by politicians
In the 1990s, politicians attempted to raid the pension fund as a means of balancing the state budget. More recently, politicians have proposed legislation that would convert CalPERS into a defined contribution plan, where employees must manage their own investment portfolio and hope for the best in the stock market. Like other public servants, classified employees have worked hard to earn their retirement. It’s not a gift, and it certainly isn’t a benefit they can afford to lose.

CSEA was founded to secure retirement benefits
Retirement security is an issue that is near and dear to the hearts of CSEA members. CSEA was founded in 1926 by a group of Oakland school custodians who united to secure retirement benefits. Just like today’s classified employees, they believed the state should honor the work and contributions of longtime employees after they retired.