The truth about our pension plans
What does a federal pension look like? Sage takes a closer look at federal pensions.
It’s easy to make assumptions about federal pensions, but the numbers paint a clearer picture.
People often have odd ideas about what a federal pension looks like — images of Scrooge McDuck jumping into a pool of gold coins comes to mind — but what does a federal pension actually look like? Federal Retirees represents 170,000 members of four separate public sector pension plans: the Federal Public Service, Canadian Armed Forces, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Armed Forces Reserve Force. Let’s look at each of those plans.
The Public Service Superannuation Act
The Public Service Superannuation Act (PSSA) we know today began in 1954. Employees contributed a portion of their income in return for a promise of a lifelong pension. The federal public service pension plan has grown through the years to include survivor benefits, indexation and other benefits.
Today, there are nearly 295,000 beneficiaries with an average annual pension benefit paid of $39,926. Men make more than women in retirement in the public service ($45,174 vs. $34,911) for many reasons. Those include the traditional gender pay gap and the fact that women have often spent more time working part-time, which is reflected in the average pensionable service, which is 25.1 years for men and 23.6 for women. The average retirement age for Group 1 members (those who joined the federal public service before 2013) is 60.3 years and for Group 2 members, it’s a bit higher at 62.2 years.
The RCMP Superannuation Act
In 1960, the RCMP Superannuation Act (RCMPSA) established the modern RCMP Pension Plan, though survivor benefits have existed since 1934. Indexation was introduced in 1974 providing CPI-based annual increases.
The lifetime annual pension average in 2024 was $49,120. The last actuarial report puts the average regular force male pension between $45,000 and $65,000 and women at $35,000 to $50,000. Women face similar issues in the RCMP as they do in the public service when it comes to pension income — shorter service and more part-time work mean fewer contributions, but also, they tend to hold fewer senior positions so have smaller overall salaries. Female survivors in the RCMP plan also far outnumber male survivors (88 per cent female), and the average survivor pension is only $23,014.
The average age of retirement for regular members of the RCMP is 57.1 while for civilian members it is a bit higher at 60 years of age.
The Canadian Forces Superannuation Act
For the Canadian Armed Forces, the current incarnation of the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act (CFSA) began in 1960. It has been amended several times and gained similar benefits to
the other plans such as indexation. A separate plan, the Reserve Force Pension Plan, was created in 2007 under the CFSA specifically for CAF reservists who met certain service thresholds. In March 2024, there were 124,175 regular force pension recipients and 19,404 reserve force pension recipients. The average pension was $38,040 for regular force and a much smaller $5,520 for reserve force.
These pensions are not extravagant — particularly in a time of quickly increasing cost of living. They are hard earned and allow individuals who gave their service to the Canadian people to retire in dignity. They represent a fair return for decades of public service, ensuring that those who dedicated their careers to supporting Canadians are not left behind in retirement.