Comparing public and private sector pension plans A lower level of participation in workplace pension plans in the private sector and the much greater likelihood of a private sector worker participating in a DC plan have captured the head- lines in public debate over the differences in pension plans in the private and public sectors. [...] This means that the survivor benefit is “paid for” by a reduction in the amount of a retirement benefit that has a value equal to that of the survivor benefit (i.e., a retirement benefit is calculated according to the benefit formula in the plan and is then reduced so that the combined retirement and survivor benefits have the same value as the original retirement benefit). [...] The spike in pension wealth is slightly stronger in the PSSP than in the OTPP, partly because of the maximum number of years of service in the PSSP.14 Mobility Another area of difference is the treatment of mobile workers. [...] Because solvency deficits have to be amortized over periods of no more than five years, the emergence of solvency deficits has driven up the required contributions of employers, as is indicated in table 4. The financial status of the PSSP The fact that the going-concern valuations used in assessing the financial requirements of the PSSP are less volatile than private sector solvency valuations and [...] The negative balance of the Fund is attributable in part to the fact that the smoothing of asset values used in the going-concern valuation means that investment losses that arose during 2008 and 2009 still have a negative impact on the actuarial value of the Fund’s assets.