TheFederal Employees Retirement System(FERS)is the current retirementsystem for US federal civilian employees. FERS retirement was enacted in 1986 to replace theCivil Service RetirementSystem(CSRS), whose costs were thought to be too high for the long term. FERS was designed to conform federalretirement plans more closely with those in the private sector. It became effective in 1987 but has been applied toemployees who joined federal service in 1984.While the benefits underFERSare not as generous as under CSRS, FERS is more generous thanvirtually allcorporate plans.While most current federal and postalretireesremain under CSRS, the majority offederal employees working today about 80% are under FERS.
