More than 33K Hawai‘i residents, including teachers, are affected
Posted: December 20, 2024
The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday evening to approve a bill to boost Social Security benefits for nearly 3 million Americans, including public school teachers and thousands of people in the islands. Lawmakers voted to repeal two laws that have limited retirement payouts to state and local public-sector workers and their families.
The Government Pension Offset (GPO) and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) hurt teachers working in 15 states (not including Hawaiʻi) and other government employees in 26 states, because it reduces or eliminates their Social Security benefits. While those who have exclusively worked in Hawaiʻi may not be affected, those who have moved around the country (or their spouses) may be hurt by past employment. Data from Jan. 2023 showed that more than 33,000 people in Hawaiʻi are affected.
The proposal passed the Senate Friday night with a vote of 76 to 20. It was a strong show of support for the bill that would help educators, police officers, firefighters, and government employees who receive benefits from a public pension not covered by Social Security.
The legislation passed the U.S. House earlier this month by a vote of 327 to 75. President Joe Biden is expected to sign it once it reaches his desk.
“This is about fairness. These unjust Social Security penalties have robbed public service workers of their hard-earned benefits for far too long. They have hurt educators and their families—and damaged the education profession, making it harder to attract and retain educators. And that means students are impacted, too,” said National Education Association President Becky Pringle in a statement Friday night.
Island teachers will benefit from Social Security fix
David Brown, a teacher at Kamehameha III Elementary on Maui, is one of the educators who will benefit from the change.
Brown said, “I taught in California for 30 years before retiring and moving to Maui. I have taught in Hawai‘i now for 10 years. I have not even considered taking Social Security benefits because the amount of money I would get is drastically reduced due to the Social Security restrictions” now in place.
A Hawai‘i Island teacher told HSTA she was badly affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision after serving as “a teacher and counselor in California for 12 years before moving to Hawai‘i. I am having to continue to work here in Hawai‘i for about five more years past my desired retirement date just to offset the deductions that the WEP would make on my retirement income. Passing this bill would have a big impact on my earnings for my retirement.”
A teacher at a Leeward Oʻahu school said, “WEP will force me to put off my retirement in order to be able to afford to retire even though I have paid into Social Security for many years. This is because I previously taught in California.”
Repealing these unjust laws has been a decades-long priority for NEA and was made possible by the tireless advocacy of educators and other public service workers. NEA members made nearly half a million calls and sent emails to members of Congress and their staff, demanding they repeal these laws. NEA members lobbied lawmakers on the Hill and in constituent offices, sharing their personal stories of how these laws have unjustly penalized them and their families. NEA held news conferences and rallies and brought union members to Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to pass the Social Security Fairness Act.
“Millions of retired teachers and firefighters and letter carriers and state and local workers have waited decades for this moment. No longer will public retirees see their hard-earned Social Security benefits robbed from them,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Read more about the Social Security Fairness Act that the Senate passed early Saturday, EST.