Civil Service Retirement System - CSRS

CSRS, or the Civil Service Retirement System, was the system in place offering retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to employees of the U.S. federal government until 1987.

Then everyone looked around at each other in the late ‘80s and decided that a lot had to get fixed. Hair was getting too big. Music had too many synthesizers. And the CSRS was switched to the FERS, or Federal Employee Retirement System, which is leaner in the benefits it gives out. Unlike CSRS, FERS takes into account benefits federal employees are already getting through Social Security, government contributions, and employee contributions.