Target 12: Warwick tops pension payouts

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Retirees in Warwick get the biggest average monthly pension checks in the state, with Cranston and Providence pensioners taking second and third place, a Target 12 comparison of town-by-town pension data reveals.

The average pension pays $2,979 a month in Warwick, $2,383 in Cranston and $2,373 in Providence, according to financial records obtained and analyzed by Target 12.

By comparison, the average monthly pension for a state employee is $2,157 – excluding judges and state police retirees – according to testimony before the Senate and House Finance Committees.

• Interactive town-by-town map of average pension payments

Target 12 compiled pension data from every city and town pension plan, including those managed by the state – known as the Municipal Employee Retirement System, or MERS – to calculate each one's average payment. The data includes police and fire retirees as well as city workers, but excludes teachers. 

Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian said his city pays the highest average pension because workers there tend to stay on the job longer, thus earning a bigger benefit. 

"I think the majority of our employees are staying a longer period of time so therefore their longevity would increase as they go forward," Avedisian said. "I would rather have one person in the pension system that we are paying a higher pension to than three people that we have to pay health insurance to and are eventually going to pay a pension to all three of them."

The data shows Providence sends out 2,955 checks a month to its retirees, while Warwick pays 933 retirees. The numbers are roughly in line with how many workers each city currently employs.

The smallest pensions on average go to Foster: $259, Glocester: $679 and Burrillville: $713.

The Target 12 review shows municipalities with a higher number of retirees collecting tax-free accidental disability pensions, and a large number of the independently managed local pension plans, tend to have more generous monthly average pension payments.

Central Falls has the highest number of employees collecting a tax-free accidental disability pension – awarded for being hurt on the job – at 33 percent of their entire pension payroll. Warwick is second at 22 percent, followed by Johnston at 20 percent and Providence at 19 percent.

The average pension check in Central Falls was $1,765 before the troubled city filed for bankruptcy, after which it dropped to $1,228 when the state-appointed receiver slashed benefits. Johnston pays its retirees an average of $2,034, the sixth-highest average on the town-by-town comparison list.

While Avedisian said the higher number of disability pensions does inflate the average monthly pension check in his city, many of those are part of a police and fire pension plan that was closed to new hires in the 1990s by then-Mayor Lincoln Chafee. Records show 138 of 391 retirees in that plan get the tax-free pension.

"There were a sizable number of them that were granted," Avedisian said, adding that since then Warwick has dramatically changed how they award accidental disability pensions.

In sheer numbers, Providence has far more retirees collecting a disability pension for being hurt on the job, with 566. They also boast the most lucrative pensions: former Providence Fire Chief Gilbert McLaughlin collects nearly $185,000 a year in pension payments tax-free. The highest pension check in Warwick is half that: retired Warwick Fire Chief John Chartier takes in $95,104 a year.

Avedisian said pension payout data can be misleading because public safety pensions are far more lucrative than retiree benefits for the average retired city worker.

"The average municipal pension is about $14,000 per year and I don't think that anyone would begrudge someone who worked for 20 years getting that," Avedisian said.

Tim White ( twhite@wpri.com ) is the Target 12 investigative reporter for WPRI 12 and Fox Providence. Follow him on Twitter: @white_tim