Early Retirement Incentives

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, school districts throughout Connecticut face the paradox of decreasing budgets, due to state and local revenues losses, and increasing costs, due to safety mitigation in transportation, sanitization, temperature checks, personal protective equipment, and technology. With mounting pressure, many school districts are being asked to evaluate layoffs, furloughs, or other austerity measures to create savings. Another option that Superintendents should consider are district-controlled voluntary separation incentives.

PARS has a long-standing successful track record of implementing over 1,000 Voluntary Separation Incentives to more than 350 school districts, community colleges, and educational agencies nationwide. These incentives have helped districts reduce labor costs, restructure their workforce, and avoid/reduce the need for layoffs.

A well-crafted early retirement or separation incentive can be a win-win approach for management and employees/labor to achieve fiscal savings, avoid layoffs, and restructure departments or positions. The key to constructing a successful incentive is considering when and how it should be implemented. Below are crucial points to examine:

The start of the New Year brings with it new goals, new ideas, and new opportunities. It is also a time to look for creative ways to save money. As you continue to review your district's finances over the coming weeks, consider having PARS help you analyze whether an early retirement incentive can create fiscal savings for your district in 2020 and beyond.

Public Agency Retirement Services (PARS) can help your district analyze whether it makes it sense to offer an early retirement incentive  for fiscal and budgetary success. We specialize in customized, locally-controlled early retirement incentives that, if properly designed, can be a win-win solution for unions, employees and administrations.