Millennial State & Local Government Employee Views on Their Jobs, Compensation & Retirement provides a deeper analysis of NIRS’ November 2019 opinion research report, and it drills down to examine the views of Millennials working in state and local government.

This nationwide poll finds that 84 percent of Millennials working in state and local government say they are satisfied with their job. This high job satisfaction comes despite sentiment that they could earn a higher salary in the private sector. Most Millennials in state and local government (80 percent) believe they could earn a higher salary working in the private sector, and only about one in four see their salary as very competitive.

The research also finds that state and local Millennial employees (85 percent) say that they plan to stay in their job until they retire or can no longer work. But Millennials’ job loyalty would alter if their benefits were changed. Some 78 percent say their healthcare benefits is one reason they chose a position in the public sector, and 77 percent say they would be more likely to leave their job if this benefit were cut. A high number of these Millennials (84 percent) say that a pension benefit is the reason they stay in a state and local government job. These Millennials say that cutting their pension benefits would make them more likely to leave their state or local government job (71 percent).

The key findings are as follows:

Despite knowing they could earn a higher salary in the private sector, Millennials working in state and local government are satisfied with their jobs and total compensation.

State & local government Millennial employees are planning to stick with their current job, but changing their benefits might push some out the door.

Millennials working in state and local government are highly supportive of pensions, and they see the advantages of their benefits beyond retirement.

State and local government Millennial employees feel confident about their retirement, but worry about cuts or changes to benefits.

State and local government Millennial workers say eliminating pensions has negative consequences.

Information for this study was collected from online interviews between August 22 through September 12, 2019. The sample consists of 1,118 public sector employees aged 18 and older to include 362 teachers, 284 police officers, 204 firefighters and 268 other public sector employees.