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Idaho

Overview

The Public Employees Retirement System of Idaho (PERSI) administers pension and other benefits to substantially all public employees in the state, including state employees, teachers, and employees of political subdivisions electing to participate. In addition to the basic defined benefit plan, PERSI administers two defined contribution plans: a voluntary 401(k) and a gain-sharing plan, in which excess investment gains are distributed to participant accounts when the plan is overfunded.

Plan Design

Defined benefit plans serve as the primary retirement benefit for substantially all public employees in Idaho.

According to the US Government Accountability Office, 98 percent of employees of state and local government in Idaho participate in Social Security.

Access plan design detail

Authorizing Statutes and Board Structure

ID Code § 59-1301 establishes the Public Employee Retirement System. ID Code § 59-1304 creates the retirement board, which is composed of five members.

Details regarding the composition of these and other retirement boards is accessible via the Retirement and Investment Board Characteristics search tool located at the bottom of this page.

Fiduciary Duty/Prudence Standard

ID Code § 59-1301 describes the fiduciary responsibilities of the PERSI Board of Trustees:

With respect to the retirement fund created in this chapter, the fiduciaries of the fund shall discharge their duties with respect to the fund solely in the interest of the members and their beneficiaries
(a)  for the exclusive purpose of:

(i)  providing benefits to members and their beneficiaries; and
(ii) defraying reasonable expenses of administering the system;
(b)  with the care, skill, prudence and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a like capacity and familiar with such matters would use in the conduct of an enterprise of a like character and with like aims;
(c)  by diversifying the investments of the fund so as to minimize the risk of large losses, unless under the circumstances it is clearly prudent not to do so; and
(d)  in accordance with the provisions of the Idaho Code governing the system.

Legal Protections of Retirement Benefits

No explicit constitutional protection for public pension benefits, but courts recognize contractual protection for public pensions. "The rights of the employees in pension plans such as Idaho's Retirement Fund Act are vested, subject only to the reasonable modification to keep the pension system flexible and maintain its integrity. Since the employee's rights are vested, the pension plan cannot be deemed to provide gratuities. Instead, it must be considered compensatory in nature." Hansen v. City of Idaho Falls, 446 P.2d 634 (1968); Nash v. Boise City Fire Department, 663 P.2d 1105 (1983). (ID CONST., Article I, §16) Source: Robert Klausner, Esq., State Constitutional Protections for Public Sector Retirement Benefits

See also the following search tools:

Retirement System Account Interest Policies Economic Actuarial Assumptions Retirement and Investment Board Characteristics
Information about interest rates applied to account balances of inactive plan participants Assumed rates of investment return and inflation Composition and characteristics of public retirement and investment oversight boards
Mortality Assumptions Plan Design Features Post-retirement Employment Policies
Public retirement system actuarial assumptions for mortality Numerous elements of retirement plan design Policies governing return-to-work for retirement system annuitants

More Data

Flag of Idaho (November 2, 1957)

Population (2025) 2,029,733

Idaho public pension statistics,
per U.S. Census Bureau as of FY 2025

Assets

$24.7 billion

Active Members

78,842

Annuitants

58,078

Benefits Paid

$1.5 billion

Employee Contributions

$400,6 million

Employer Contributions

$632.3 million

Systems

One state system that accounts for 99.9 percent of assets and public pension plan participants in the state. The Census Bureau also reports 3 local systems.

More Data

 Other Resources

 
 


Become A Member

Becoming a member of NASRA offers a unique opportunity to join a community committed to the sound, efficient, and innovative stewardship of public retirement systems. Membership connects you with a network of professionals and experts, providing valuable insights into managing public retirement systems with a focus on sustainability and risk-averse strategies.

By joining NASRA, you gain the tools and resources to enhance the management of public retirement systems, ensuring their long-term success and reliability for generations to come.

What's New at NASRA: Government Spending Issue Brief

NASRA’s March 2026 update on government spending makes a basic but important point: public pension benefits are not paid out of a government’s day-to-day operating budget. They are paid from trust funds that employees and employers contribute to during an employee’s working years. Those trusts distribute more than $400 billion each year to retirees and beneficiaries in communities across the country. On a national basis, employer contributions to pension trusts in FY 2023 equaled 5.16 percent of direct general spending by state and local governments, which shows that pension contributions remain a limited share of overall public spending even though the level varies from one state to another. 
The brief also shows that pension costs should be viewed in the context of the changes governments have made over the past 15 years to strengthen plan funding. Following the 2008–09 market decline, nearly every state and many local governments adjusted contributions, benefits, or both to improve pension sustainability. More recent data show that employer contributions increased from FY 2022 to FY 2023, but pension spending as a share of total government spending remained broadly stable. The updated brief provides FY 2023 figures and also projects the aggregate pension spending rate for FY 2024, offering a useful snapshot of both current costs and the longer funding trend.