The sun shines brightly on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022, above the University of New Orleans entrance sign on Lakeshore Drive. (Photo by Matthew Perschall)
Matthew Green, an assistant professor of education at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, wants to finish his career in the state but said he feels like his poor retirement prospects are an incentive to leave.
Green is one of more than 6,000 public colleges and university faculty and staff members who’ve enrolled in the state’s portable or “optional retirement plan,” which allows them to take their accrued benefits with them if they choose to leave Louisiana for another job. In exchange for that portability, employees lose out on more lucrative benefits through a fixed, pension-style retirement plan offered to most state employees.
But as professors earn tenure and key personnel stay in place longer, the inability to switch over to the fixed benefit plan with a higher payout makes Louisiana less attractive for employees who want to finish their careers here.