Cite as: 532 U. S. 557 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
here—among advantages and disadvantages—are less distant and more complex, the principle is similar.
Nor does the statute "equaliz[e]" with any precision. On the one hand, the then-current retirement system open to all federal employees except judges required a typical employee to contribute 7% to 8% of his or her annual salary. See generally 5 U. S. C. § 8334(a)(1). In return it provided a Member of Congress, for instance, with a pension that vested after five years and increased in value (by 2.5% of the Member's average salary) with each year of service to a maximum of 80% of salary, and covered both employee and survivors. See 5 U. S. C. §§ 8339, 8341. On the other hand, the judges' retirement system (based on life tenure) required no contribution for a judge who retired at age 65 (and who met certain service requirements) to receive full salary. But the right to receive that salary did not vest until retirement. The system provided nothing for a judge who left office before age 65. Nor did the law provide any coverage for a judge's survivors. Indeed, in 1984, a judge had to contribute 4.5% of annual salary to obtain a survivor's annuity, which increased in value by 1.25% of the judge's salary per year to a maximum of 40% of salary. 28 U. S. C. §§ 376(b), (l) (1982 ed.).
These two systems were not equal either before or after Congress enacted the 1983 law. Before 1983, a typical married federal employee other than a judge had to contribute 7% to 8% of annual salary to receive benefits that were better in some respects (vesting period, spousal benefit) and worse in some respects (80% salary maximum) than his married judicial counterpart would receive in return for a 4.5% contribution. The 1983 law imposed an added 5.7% burden upon the judge, in return for which the typical judge received little, or no, financial benefit. Viewed purely in financial equalization terms, and as applied to typical judges, the new requirement seems to overequalize, putting the typical married judge at a financial disadvantage—though
575
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