The UN Secretariat administers the programs and policies established by the other principal entities of the UN, including the General Assembly and the Security Council. The duties of the Secretariat include administering peacekeeping operations, mediating international disputes, surveying economic and social trends and problems, and preparing studies on human rights and sustainable development. The Secretariat is headquartered in New York City and has employees at other locations throughout the world. According to the UN, as of June 30, 2013, the Secretariat employed 41,273 people, of which about 30 percent (12,220) were professional staff. The total compensation package for UN employees consists of salary, benefits, and allowances. UN salaries consist of a base salary and post adjustment added to account for the cost of living at individual posts. The UN administers a staff assessment, which is used to contribute to a tax equalization fund, and which does not affect take-home pay. This fund is used to compensate UN employees from countries that require them to pay taxes on their UN income. UN benefits consist of items including retirement, health insurance, and retiree health insurance. In addition, about 20 allowances are available to UN professional Secretariat staff, including danger pay, hardship pay, mobility allowance, education grants, and others. Receipt of these allowances is based on whether a UN staff member meets the eligibility criteria established by the UN for each allowance. Our 2013 report on UN compensation provides more detailed information on benefits and allowances available to UN professional staff. Separate bodies within the UN administer the different elements of total compensation or provide information to the General Assembly about staff demographics and trends in compensation. International Civil Service Commission (ICSC). The General Assembly established the ICSC in 1974 as an independent expert body with a mandate to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the UN common system. As a part of its mandate, the ICSC makes recommendations or determinations for certain compensation elements for employees within the UN common system, such as salary and allowances. On some matters, the ICSC can act independently, while on others its decisions are subject to General Assembly approval. For example, the ICSC can determine changes to the post adjustment, or cost-of-living adjustment portion of UN salaries, without prior approval from the General Assembly. In addition, the ICSC can set some allowances, such as the hardship allowance for employees serving at posts where living conditions are considered difficult, without General Assembly approval. However, proposed ICSC changes to UN base salary must be approved by the General Assembly. The ICSC is also responsible for annually reviewing the percentage difference between UN professional salaries and those of U.S. civil service employees in a process called the margin calculation. The UN’s process uses net salary, rather than total compensation, to compare UN and U.S. staff salaries because the General Assembly has directed the ICSC to conduct the margin calculation only using salaries. Joint Staff Pension Fund Board. The UN Joint Staff Pension Fund provides retirement and related benefits to UN staff and is administered by the Joint Staff Pension Fund Board in accordance with regulations adopted by the General Assembly. The Joint Staff Pension Fund is a defined benefit fund that provides benefits to more than 67,000 retirees and beneficiaries. As of 2013, approximately 121,000 active participants from 23 organizations in the UN system are accumulating pension benefits under the Joint Staff Pension Fund. Health and Life Insurance Section. This office is part of the UN Office of Program Planning, Budget, and Accounts, and administers health plans, after-service health insurance, and life insurance for UN Secretariat staff. United Nations System Chief Executives Board for Coordination (CEB). The CEB provides coordination and strategic guidance, and prepares reports on staff demographics and other compensation issues for use by UN organizations. The Human Resources Network of the CEB brings together directors of human resources departments from more than 30 UN and related organizations at biannual meetings. Benefits and allowances offered by the UN and the U.S. government are generally similar, and each provides certain benefits or allowances with greater monetary value than the other. Similar UN and U.S. benefits include retirement plans and health insurance for staff and retirees, while similar allowances include hardship pay and education grants. Where comparable data were available, our comparisons of UN and U.S. government benefits and allowances show that each entity provided some benefits or allowances of greater monetary value than those provided by the other. We did not compare some benefits and allowances, such as danger pay and retiree health benefits, because of the limited availability of comparable data. The UN and the U.S. government offer generally similar benefits, with some minor differences. For example, both the UN and the U.S. government offer health, dental, and retiree health insurance to their staff. Table 1 compares the benefits available to eligible UN professional staff and U.S. civil service employees. While similar in purpose, some of the benefits offered by the UN and the U.S. government differ in design and structure. For instance, while both the UN and the U.S. government offer retirement benefits, the UN offers its professional staff a pension plan that provides retirees a defined benefit, based on factors including an employee’s age, years of participation in the plan, and salary history. The UN pension plan provides benefits similar to the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), a retirement plan providing U.S. federal civilian retirees with a defined benefit. CSRS was created in 1920 and was the only retirement plan for most federal civilian employees until 1984. However, most current U.S. civil service employees, including all those hired after 1984, are covered FERS is a three- by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS).part retirement plan consisting of (1) a basic defined benefit pension, (2) Social Security benefits, and (3) the Thrift Saving Plan (TSP)—a retirement savings and investment plan in which employee contributions are matched by the employer up to a certain percentage of salary. Compared with participants in the UN Pension Fund or CSRS, U.S. civil service employees participating in the FERS plan receive a smaller defined benefit pension, but receive Social Security and earnings from accumulated TSP investments upon retirement. Further information on eligibility requirements and key plan provisions of the UN Pension Fund and FERS can be found in appendix II. Many allowances offered by the UN to its professional staff are similar to those offered by the U.S. government, but both entities also offer allowances unique to their own employees. Figure 1 compares similar allowances provided by both the UN and the U.S. government to eligible staff, as well as allowances offered by one but not the other. As shown in figure 1, both the UN and the U.S. government, for example, provide allowances to compensate staff for serving in a dangerous or hardship duty station and to account for the cost of living at particular duty stations. However, the UN and the U.S. government each offer some allowances to staff that are not offered by the other. For example, eligible UN professional staff may receive a dependents allowance, to compensate for having a child or other qualifying dependent; or a mobility allowance, to provide incentive for staff to change duty stations. Similar allowances are not part of the compensation package for U.S. Foreign Service employees and civil service employees serving overseas. In addition, U.S. government employees can be eligible for student loan repayments, at the discretion of each agency, if the employee signs a service agreement to remain with the agency for at least 3 years. Appendix III provides more detailed information on UN and U.S. allowances. Using available data, we compared specific benefits and allowances provided by the UN and the U.S. government, and found that each entity provided certain benefits and allowances of greater monetary value than those provided by the other. However, the lack of available or comparable data prevented us from making a monetary comparison of all UN and U.S. benefits and allowances. We were able to compare certain UN and U.S. compensation elements, including retirement benefits, health insurance, and allowances such as hardship pay. Table 2 summarizes the benefits and allowances that we compared and the results of our analysis. To compare the UN and U.S. civil service retirement systems, we estimated income replacement rates for UN employees and U.S. civil service employees covered by FERS under different scenarios, including differing work histories, and retirement contribution rates. Income replacement rates provide a method of comparing retirement programs that describe how much of a worker’s preretirement salary is replaced in the first year of retirement by a retirement plan. For example, an employee with a preretirement salary of $100,000 who received $60,000 in the first year of retirement from his or her retirement plan has an income replacement rate of 60 percent. Our scenarios had varying results. One scenario showed that income replacement rates under FERS were higher than for the UN Pension Fund, given the economic conditions of the time periods we analyzed. In another scenario, the income replacement rates for the two systems were similar. Both scenarios are summarized in table 3. One of our scenarios compares UN staff and U.S. civil service employees covered by FERS who retire at age 62, contribute an equivalent percentage of salary to their retirement, and have 30 years of service. Our estimates show that the FERS retirement package replaces between 63 and 69 percent of salary, while the UN Pension Fund replaces between 63 and 68 percent of salary. We also compared UN staff and U.S. employees with 20 years of service who retire at age 62 and contribute an equivalent percentage of salary to their retirement. Our estimates show that FERS replaces between 48 and 55 percent of salary, and the UN Pension Fund replaces between 40 and 44 percent of salary.