Larry McBurney is a Democratic member of the Iowa House representing part of Urbandale.
Governor Kim Reynolds’ “Delivering Opportunities for Greater Efficiency” (DOGE) Task Force plans to recommend moving new public employees away from the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (IPERS) and into a 401(k)-style defined contribution plan. It’s being sold as a modern update, but the truth is this change would devastate Iowa’s public workforce. It’s a solution in search of a problem, and it targets one of the few benefits still keeping people in public service.
Let’s be clear about the reality for public employees in Iowa. Public sector wages are already 17.6 percent lower than in the private sector. Even after factoring in benefits, public employees still earn 14.5 percent less than their private counterparts.
That gap didn’t happen by chance. In 2017, Governor Terry Branstad and the Republican-controlled legislature gutted Chapter 20, stripping away collective bargaining rights that had allowed public workers to negotiate for fair pay and benefits. In the years since, we’ve watched the pay gap widen from a crack to a canyon.
The assumption that public sector benefits make up for the lower wages is also out of date. Many large private employers now outpace the State of Iowa in what they offer. Wells Fargo, an example I have first-hand knowledge of, provides up to sixteen weeks of paid parental leave to both birthing and non-birthing parents. State employees receive just four weeks for the birthing parent and one week for the non-birthing parent.
Most large private companies also offer volunteer time off so employees can give back to their communities without dipping into personal vacation time. Although I introduced a bill last year to offer public employees a similar style volunteer time off, it drew little interest in the legislature and was never brought to subcommittee.
I’ve seen the recruitment crisis up close. During my time on the Urbandale City Council, we spent 18 months trying to hire a professional engineer. We were so desperate for candidates that we offered to cover the licensing costs for anyone with a qualifying engineering degree. Still, we got no takers. The reason was obvious: engineers in the private sector can make far more money and often enjoy better benefits. And this isn’t unique to engineering; IT positions are equally difficult to fill for the same reason.
The one tool local governments have to retain talent, once they’ve managed to bring someone on board, is IPERS. In conversations with teachers, police officers, city staff, and state employees, I’ve heard over and over that IPERS is the primary reason they stay in public service instead of seeking employment in the private sector. It is the one advantage left that makes the public sector competitive for skilled professionals.
IPERS isn’t just good for the people who rely on it in retirement—it’s good for Iowa’s economy. According to a 2012 AARP study, every dollar invested in IPERS generates $6.30 in total economic impact. Every dollar paid in pension benefits supports $1.74 in economic activity across our state. That means every monthly pension check helps keep Iowa’s small businesses open and our communities strong.
Despite what the DOGE Task Force implies, IPERS is not broken. In fact, it’s one of the healthiest pension systems in the country. As of December 2024, IPERS was 90.75 percent funded—its strongest position in more than twenty years. National pension experts routinely cite it as a model of sound management.
For decades, the public sector could offer job security, stable schedules, competitive pay, and strong benefits. But with the rise of remote work, private sector schedules are now just as flexible, often more so. Job security is no longer a uniquely public sector selling point. Additionally, since Iowa gutted collective bargaining rights for public employees, pay has fallen even further behind. The only competitive edge public employers have left is their benefits package, and IPERS is the crown jewel.
If we take IPERS away from new hires, we will further erode recruitment and retention in fields already struggling to attract workers. We will lose teachers to other states or the growing number of private schools being brought into our state, engineers to private firms, and IT professionals to corporations that can offer better pay and flexibility. This will do lasting damage to the stability of a retirement system that supports not just its members, but Iowa’s broader economy.
If Iowa is serious about building and keeping a strong public workforce, the answer isn’t to chip away at the one advantage it still has. We should be protecting and strengthening IPERS, restoring collective bargaining rights, and modernizing benefits so they can truly compete with the private sector.
Public service should be a calling, not a sacrifice. If we continue down the path the DOGE Task Force has laid out, we will find ourselves in a place where that calling is impossible to answer.
Top image: Luisita Dona with Larry McBurney in front of an IPERS sign at the Iowa State Fair in 2017. Photo provided by the author and published with permission.