More than ever, public employees deserve our support. Despite their challenging and sometimes dangerous jobs, our public servants often receive far lower salaries than many private sector workers. It is doubly unfair, therefore, to hold them to a different standard when it comes to their Social Security retirement benefits. Furthermore, at a time when we should be doing all that we can to attract qualified people to public service, the WEP and GPO penalties make it more difficult for our communities to recruit and retain the teachers and other public workers who are so critical to the education, safety, and well-being of our families.
The GPO and WEP affect government employees and retirees in virtually every state, but their effect is much more acute in Maine and 14 other states where most public employees participate in state retirement systems that do not include Social Security. Nationwide, more than one-third of teachers and school employees, and more than one-fifth of other public employees, are not covered by Social Security. Approximately 250,000 retired federal, state, and local government employees across the country have already been hurt by these provisions, and thousands more stand to be affected in the future.
The Social Security Windfall Elimination Provision reduces Social Security benefits for retirees who paid into Social Security but who also receive a government pension from work not covered under Social Security, such as pensions from the Maine State Retirement Fund. While private sector retirees receive monthly Social Security checks equal to 90 percent of their first $561 in average monthly career earnings, government pensioners are only allowed to receive 40 percent – an unwarranted, punitive penalty of $280.50 per month. The Government Pension Offset reduces an individual's survivor benefit under Social Security by two-thirds of the amount of his or her public pension. Estimates indicate that 9 out of 10 public employees affected by the GPO lose their entire spousal benefit, even though their deceased spouses paid Social Security taxes for many years. This offset is unfortunately most harsh for those who can least afford the loss – lower-income women. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the GPO reduces benefits for some 200,000 individuals by more than $3,600 a year – an amount that can make the difference between a comfortable retirement and poverty.
This simply is not fair and not right. Our teachers and other public employees face challenges that are difficult enough in their day-to-day work. Those who have devoted their lives to public service should not have the added burden of worrying about diminished retirement income.
This is an issue that I have heard about at the grocery store, at my church, and even at my 30th high school class reunion from my many friends who entered the teaching profession and who are committed to living and working in Maine. They love their jobs and the children they teach, but they worry about the future and about their financial security in retirement.
I also hear a lot about this issue in the letters, emails, and telephone calls to my offices in Maine and my office in Washington. Patricia Dupont, for example, of Orland, Maine, writes that she is living on a retirement income of less than $13,000 after 45 years of teaching, simply because she taught for 15 years under Social Security in New Hampshire. Since she also lost survivors benefits from her husband's Social Security, she calculates that a repeal of the WEP and GPO would double her current retirement income.
Wendy Lessard, an English teacher at Mt. Desert Island High School, is an example of another unfortunate consequence of the laws. After 10 years of teaching, she is now considering whether or not to continue her career because of the Social Security penalties associated with her teacher's pension. She tells me that she has worked vacations in her summers and off-hours to pay back her student loans. She is just the kind of teacher we want teaching our students, but we are in danger of losing her because of her concerns about financial security in retirement.
Moreover, these provisions also penalize private sector employees who leave their jobs to become public school teachers. "I entered the teaching profession two years ago, partly in response to the nationwide pleas for educators," writes Ruth Wilson, a teacher from Otisfield. "As the current pool of educators nears retirement in the next few years, our schools face a crisis. Low wages and long hard hours are not great selling points to young students when selecting a career. I love teaching and only regretted my decision when I found out about the penalties I will unfairly suffer."
Maine, like many states, is currently facing a serious shortage of teachers, and across the country, we need to encourage talented and hard-working Americans to begin or to continue their careers in public service. It is my hope that the Senate will enact the legislation I introduced, the Social Security Fairness Act to remove the unfair penalties that keep these public servants from receiving collecting their fair share of Social Security benefits when they retire.