Career gaps cost more than the time they take

New modeling from the Pew Charitable Trusts' State Fiscal Policy project, reported by PLANADVISER, gives advisors a concrete answer to a familiar question: what does a career gap do to a public-sector client's benefits? The report models hypothetical employees in a defined benefit plan, a defined contribution plan and a hybrid, and it cites BLS data showing that 11% of employed people ages 25 through 54 worked part time in 2025. In its DC example, an employee who spent a 35-year career working part time — roughly 20 hours a week — would collect nearly $18,000 a year in benefits, compared with nearly $36,000 for the full-time colleague, a 50% gap. The same career pattern leaves a hybrid plan benefit 67% lower and a defined benefit plan benefit 75% lower, because the DB formula multiplies final average salary by years of service.

The sharper warning sits in the interrupted-career scenarios, where the benefit losses quietly exceed the time given up: five years of part-time work, 7% less than a full 35-year career, trims the estimated DC benefit by 9% and the hybrid benefit by 8%, while five years entirely out of the workforce, 14% less career time, cuts DC benefits by 21%, hybrid benefits by 19% and DB benefits by 18%. A ten-year exit, 29% of a career, reduces DC benefits by 38%, hybrid benefits by 36% and DB benefits by 34%, and the report explains the compounding: in DC and hybrid plans, missed contributions and the investment growth they would have earned make the shortfall compound, while in DB plans part-time work cuts twice by lowering final average pay and years of service. The authors also reviewed several public-sector plans and found the documents did not clearly explain what reduced hours or a temporary leave would do to future benefits.

For caregivers and others facing family obligations, a career break can be the necessary call, not the wrong one. What matters is making it with a projection in view, and Pew's scenarios belong on the table at the first mention of cutting back or taking leave, before the schedule locks in the loss. The five-year DC gap — 21% of benefits for 14% of career time — is the easiest number to keep ready; the ten-year DC gap, 38% for 29%, makes a long break unmistakably expensive. If the plan document will not explain the cost, the advisor can.