PBGC Pension Benefits, by State

We hear periodically about individual pension plans the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) acts to cover. But the PBGC maintains data that show the state-by-state distribution of the benefits it provides, offering a look at geographic distribution. The PBGC has announced that the 2016 data are available. 

Nationwide, in 2016 the PBGC paid out $5.6 billion in benefits to almost 861,000 retirees in single-employer plans. The 10 states where the PBGC paid the most in 2016 were among the 10 most populous and/or were clustered in the rust belt: 

Ohio: $557,021,996 to 78,929 retirees

Pennsylvania: $464,996,076 to 79,687 retirees

Florida: $414,878,111 to 57,874

Michigan: $400,176,276 to 48,749 retirees

California: $347,166,083 to 43,003 retirees

New York: $334,048,647 to 51,763 retirees

Illinois: $307,205,910 to 43,657 retirees

Indiana: $293,452,366 to 32,989 retirees

North Carolina: $194,868,342 to 42,655 retirees

Georgia: $179,772,172 to 31,545 retirees

Conversely, the five states where the PBGC paid the least in 2016 were all among the 10 least populous, and all but one were in the upper Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states: 

Montana: $6,003,662 to 673 retirees

South Dakota: $4,498,063 to 670 retirees

Alaska: $3,937,127 to 635 retirees

Wyoming: $3,404,064 to 389 retirees

North Dakota: $501,634 to 140 retirees