At least, that’s what the state figures as it plans pension payments. It figures the life spans of female employees to be three years longer, and teachers are expected to live to 85.

Such statistics are used in the management of the $63 billion state pension investment fund, which is expected to pay for the retirements of 121,000 public workers.

Washington’s life expectancy grows by about two years every decade. But the state doesn’t automatically account for the increasing average life span in its pension planning.

The state is considering adding continuously increasing life expectancies to its pension calculations. The change likely would require workers and the state to pay more into their retirement plans, but it could save the state from catch-up payments later.

Washington uses a fixed mortality table and changes it occasionally.

“If you don’t project mortality improvement, then what happens is, every five to six years, you have to update, and there’s these jumps. You become a little bit more current, but you’re still not projecting into the future,” State Actuary Matt Smith said.

He recommends that the state assume life spans will continue stretching.

Jean Kelly, 71, retired as a manager in the state’s Medicaid program eight years ago. She said, “I figure I will live another 10 years or so. I have absolutely no desire to live to be 100.”

She wanted to spend more time with her husband and family but had to plan how to make her pension checks cover expenses.

“I built into my retirement some bills that would be paid off in a couple of years. So I had some fluid monies,” she said. “But I was not taking into account this kind of double-digit inflation. So, actually, we’re having to tighten our belts. We just made a decision that I was not going over to Eastern Washington for my class reunion. Gas is just too much.”

Kelly, president of the Olympia chapter of the Retired Public Employees Council, said people need more education on retirement planning. But even with extra help, and Medicare health insurance starting when people are 65, “I don’t see the average person being able to plan out to their 100s.”

The state faces similar challenges on a much larger scale. State retirement plans guarantee employees a steady check for the rest of their lives, based how on much they earn at the end of their careers.

The retirement funds socked away to pay for Kelly’s pension were based on the life-expectancy figures the state used during her working years.

If she lives longer than the state had planned for, taxpayers still will be on the hook to pay for her retirement.

“It’s critically important that we get it right, so that we get the contribution rates right to properly fund the pensions,” said state Sen. Mark Schoesler, a Ritzville Republican who leads the Select Committee on Pension Policy.

Many members of the Public Employee Retirement System have outlasted predictions. Smith’s office reported that from 1984 to 2006, 13,682 retirees died, 92 percent of what was expected.

Those who still were working past typical retirement age fared even better, with just 47 percent of expected deaths, at 1,164.

Asking both workers and the state to put more into the pension fund now means the money can be invested, rather than be made up in larger cash payments later, Schoelser said.

“What we know about pension policy is, if you don’t pay it now, it’s going to cost you much more later, “ he said.

He and other members of the pension committee listened recently to a presentation about factoring in the mortality rates when deciding how much workers and the state should set aside for retirements.

Smith is not sure how much more the state and its workers would have to contribute to their pensions if improving mortality rates were included.

The figure should be ready for the next meeting of the select committee and the Pension Funding Council next month, he said. The select committee advises the Legislature; the funding council will determine the actual contribution rate in July.

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