Federal government workers do not pay fifty per cent of their pensions and it has been a struggle to get them to 40 % and they are not there yet. The government doesn't have to top it up because payments came out of general revenue, and was viewed as an unfunded liability. It's only in the last ten years or so that the government set up an investment arm to invest the workers contributions. The reason for that was they saw how  well CPP did. Pension funds like Teachers and Omers are required to have funds on hand going forward of up to 70 years. Teachers regularly returns over ten per cent on its investments and Omers does about the same. For decades government workers paid 25 per cent on their pension with the government picking up the rest. Negotiations only started a few years ago to get them headed 50 % but that is a long way from now. Retirees also graduate with a Cadillac healthplan at Kia prices. Also cash payout for every year worked. This recently ended with huge payouts.