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The Initiative

Retirement Security NYC is a major initiative launched by Comptroller John C. Liu to protect the retirement security of public employees while ensuring the City's financial health. Retirement Security NYC has partnered with two leading institutions—the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS) and The New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA)—to analyze the current state of public pensions and offer sensible reforms.

Municipal Employee Compensation in New York City The $8 Billion Question Sustainable or Not? A Better Bang for New York City's Buck

The initiative announced on March 28, 2011 plans to make New York City's Pension Funds more transparent by developing a comprehensive Pension NYC application that will join the My Money NYC online suite of transparency applications.

A Better Bang for New York City's Buck
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This study analyzes the financial sources that New Yorkers depend on to provide financial security as they age. The major findings are:

  • Between 2000 and 2009, the percentage of employees in New York City who had access to employer-sponsored retirement plans declined by eight percentage points, from 48 percent to 40 percent.

  • Only 35 percent of New York City workers participated in an employer-based retirement plan in 2009.

  • More than one-third of households in which the head is near retirement age (55-64 years old) have liquid assets of less than $10,000. This cohort will have to subsist almost entirely on Social Security income or will not be able to retire at all.