Funded status measures the dollars a pension fund has received and invested compared to the pension payments it needs to make.
Government employers make promises to public workers that they will get guaranteed monthly income for life at retirement. But how do pension plans keep these promises?
It all starts with funded status, which is typically measured in one of three ways.
Measurement 1: Funded Ratio
The funded ratio is simply the value of assets in a pension fund divided by the value of promised lifetime income benefits.
If a pension plan has promised $1 billion in benefits, then in a perfect world it has $1 billion in assets to earn investments and make those payments. When a pension plan has 100% of the money it needs, it’s fully funded.
If a pension plan has promised $1 billion in pensions but only $900 million in assets, it’s just 90% funded. That isn’t a terrible thing for one or two years at a time, but if a pension plan stays below 100% funded for more than a few years in a row that means something is wrong.
Measurement 2: Unfunded Liabilities
Unfunded liabilities is the difference between the value of promised benefits and assets available to pay those benefits. This is the shortfall in assets that should be in the pension fund and invested so that all promised benefits can be paid.
A pension plan with $1 billion in promised benefits and $900 million in assets has $100 million in unfunded liabilities, or pension debt.
Measurement 3: Unfunded Liabilities As a Percentage of Local Economy
This is a way of thinking about how easily a government could backfill the pension funding shortfall and eliminate debt. The larger the unfunded liability is as a percentage of a state’s economy, the harder it is for the government to come up with money to quickly get the funded ratio back to 100%.
For example, the California teacher pension fund, CalSTRS, has a shortfall of about $59 billion as of 2025, which is about 1.4% of the Golden State’s $4.25 trillion gross domestic product. That is a lot of money and a pretty decent chunk of the state’s economy.
Meanwhile, the Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System has a roughly $25 billion funding shortfall. This is way less than California’s public pension debt, but it is 15% of the Mississippi’s $165 billion economy. That makes it a bigger problem to deal with.
Challenges with Funded Status
In recent years, funded status has been less than perfect for most public pension funds due to growing pressures that pension boards and legislatures have been slow to react to:
- People are living longer, which means paying benefits longer than your pension board may have originally expected.
- Governments have failed to pay all of their pension bills on time.
- Investments made by pension boards haven’t performed as well as they predicted.
The result is a significant shortfall in funded status. Government employers have to make up any shortfall in a pension fund’s assets by making debt payments.
Rising Pension Debt
In many states, the pension debt is billions of dollars. It’s getting harder to keep up — and you may be feeling it yourself. If you’re a public worker, your take-home pay might be getting smaller because you’re required to contribute more from each paycheck. Or raises might not feel as meaningful because your state has less money to increase pay. If you’re already retired and receiving a pension, you may lose your cost of living adjustment (COLA), which helps you keep pace with rising prices.
Taxpayers may be feeling the decline in funded status, too, just in ways not recognized. Property taxes might increase, road repairs might drag on, or public investments in things like affordable housing or cleaner parks might stall.
This article is part of Equable’s Pension Basics series. To learn more about how your pension works, check out the other articles in the series:
1. How Pension Benefits Are Calculated
2. Vesting
3. The Pension Funding Formula
5. Normal Cost
6. Unfunded Liabilities (aka Pension Debt)
7. Actuarially Determined Contributions
11. Pension Myths & Facts: The Assumed Rate of Return Does Not Determine the Value of Benefits
12. Pension Myths & Facts: The Funded Status of Pension Plans Does Not Depend on More Public Employees
