Deciding to Retire From the Federal Service

Abstract

The swelling wave of federal retirements heightens the importance of understanding the factors that influence retirement decisions. We examine both behavior and intentions to retire using two large data sets on federal white-collar employees aged 50 and above. Analysis of personnel records for 1979-2009 shows that several of the usual factors—in particular, age, federal experience, and pension design—have strong effects on when employees retire. Perhaps more revealing is our analysis of the 2012 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS), which indicates that satisfaction with agency leadership and with one’s own job appear to encourage postponing retirement plans, whereas satisfaction with supervisors and with recognition received on the job do not. These relationships—especially those for pension design, satisfaction with leadership, and satisfaction with one’s job—produce interesting implications for both theory and practice.