(Reuters) - The officers who run the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) are proposing to lower investment targets, a move that could lead to higher contributions for government workers across California, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The newspaper said it had seen a fund document on the proposal, expected to be considered by its board next week, but a final decision would not be made until late this year.

The plan for CalPERS, the largest pension fund in the United States, would reduce the fund's return assumption of 7.5 percent, the WSJ reported.

A representative of CalPERS could not immediately be reached for comment on the report.

The potential cuts are one of the recent moves by the retirement system, to lower risk and complexity in an investment portfolio worth about $294 billion, the WSJ report said.

Over two-thirds of state retirement systems have trimmed assumptions since 2008, with average target now being 7.68 percent, according to an analysis of 126 plans provided by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. That is the lowest mark since 1989. The peak was an average of 8.1 percent in 2001.

CalPERS adjusted its investment target in 2011 when it dropped to 7.5 percent from 7.75 percent. The new proposal outlines a range of scenarios where CalPERS would lower its return assumptions in years when investing profits top internal goals by 4 percent or more, the WSJ report said.

(Reporting by Rosmi Shaji in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCool)