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Objective:The purpose of this file is to provide access to the full Equable Benefits Database.
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Organization:The data in this file are organized in four tabs described below. Note that the COLA Actual tabs are also parsed into separate files also available on the Equable website.
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Benefit General: This tab contains the data for all retirement plans (both state and municipal), including legacy tiers and other classes of discontinued benefits. Note that this tab only has the most current data available, but we are always performing further quality checks and revisions. These data are current as of the date listed in "Last Updated" above.
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COLA Actuals: This tab contains a subset of the benefit data as it pertains to plan cost of living adjustments (COLAs). In addition to detailing the COLA rules and policies, this tab contains the actual COLAs issued by plans for each fiscal year (either as documented by the plans or calculated using current measures of inflation/plan performance and applying the COLA rules) for all currently active tiers and all legacy tiers.
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Variable Descriptions: This tab contains a list of the variables contained in the database, broken out for each tab, and descriptions of what are recorded in each variable.
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Note that no graphics are contained in this file.
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Data Sources:These finance data were drawn from the following sources:
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1)Pension Data: All data pertaining to pension plan assets, liabilities, payroll, contributions, or other elements of the public retirement systems examined in the report were compiled using plan-specific reports. This means data were extracted primarily from plan valuation reports and comprehensive annual financial reports (ACFRs), but other supplemental data were also collected from state ACFRs, investment reports, and other publicly available sources.
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2) COLA Actuals: All data pertaining to the COLAs issued to plan members are compiled using one of three methods: 1) the plan publishes a separate report that states how much the COLA issued for a fiscal year is, 2) the plan details how much the COLA was in a primary plan document (such as an AV or ACFR), 3) we calculate the COLA using the plan provisions outlined in the plan documentation. Note that we provide documentation for the sourcing of COLA values in the COLA_Source column of each tab.
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Notes:
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Scaling:Please reference the Variable Description tab for more details regarding the units of measurement being employed for each variable.
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Questions:For any questions related to the data in this file, please contact info@equable.org or jon@equable.org
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Additional Data:For additional data (or to access the raw data used to compile the figures reported in this file), please send an inquiry to either info@equable.org or jon@equable.org
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Last Updated:August 5, 2026
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