Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has 2 main public pension systems: the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) and the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS).

• The SERS board represents state employees and consists of 11 members: 2 Ex Officio (State Treasurer, Secretary of Banking and Securities); 5 appointed by the Governor; 2 appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate; 2 appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
  • SERS discloses its proxy voting records for directly held equities on this website.
  • SERS uses ISS for its proxy advisory services.

• The PSERS board represents school teachers and employees and consists of 15 members: 4 Ex Officio members (Secretary of Education, Treasurer of the Commonwealth, Secretary of Banking and Securities, Chief Executive Officer of PSBA); 2 House members appointed by the Speaker of the House; 2 Senate members appointed by the President Pro Tempore of the Senate; 1 Governor-appointed member; 6 elected members (3 active certified, 1 active non-certified, 1 member of the annuitant group, and 1 member to be elected by the members of the Pennsylvania public school boards).
  • PSERS discloses its proxy voting records for directly held equities on this website.
  • PSERS uses Glass Lewis for its proxy advisory services.

The “By Asset Manager” and “Asset Manager Voting” tables show the proxy voting records of the state’s asset managers who manage the pensions’ stock market portfolio through index, exchange-traded, or mutual funds. Since these are externally managed funds, the asset managers typically retain and exercise proxy voting privileges. This data is used to calculate the state’s pro-ESG and anti-ESG scores to see how the state leverages its externally managed funds in proxy voting.

The “State Voting” table shows SERS’ and PSERS’ proxy voting records for directly owned securities through pension fund portfolios. The 1792 Exchange commends SERS and PSERS for publicly disclosing this information online for its pensioners.

Both tables are important to show a comprehensive picture of the state’s proxy voting record.