A Costly Reduction
If the Clinton administration is serious about a no-pain reduction of 100,000 federal jobs in the next few years, Congress will have to come up with a multibillion-dollar buyout program to persuade older workers to leave and to protect the jobs of less senior employees.</br></br>This year, more than 111,000 federal workers got the opportunity to retire early. For people under the civil service retirement plan, that meant being able to get an immediate (but sometimes reduced) pension at age 50 after 20 years of service, or at any age after 25 years of service. Normally, workers would have to be age 55 with 30 years of service to retire.</br></br>The U.S. Postal Service solved its overstaffing problems with money, offering employees six months of pay if they would take early or regular retirement within a limited time frame. More than 47,000 took the buyout, including 26,800 (27 percent of the eligibles) who took early retirement.</br></br>Agencies that couldn't offer cash buyouts found the early- retirement program a flop. Less than 5 percent of the eligibles left.</br></br>Next year, Defense will offer about 3,000 of its 1 million civilians a modified buyout: an award of as much as $20,000 if a worker quits or retires early at a base or office that is not being closed. Defense won't offer buyouts to employees who are old enough and have sufficient service time to retire, or to anyone at a base being closed.