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Make the private sector equal also. No more company bonuses , public employees don't get them and no more tax free business trips or expense paid trips , business can be conducted at home or on the phone. No more tax right offs for business or private sector. Public employees don't get them .
The real question should be is - why don't private sector employees unionize so that they can have some bargaining power and get fixed benefit pensions like they used to have, it wasn't always like this. IMO people hating on public employees are just plain jealous and fail to understand that they could have the same thing as public employees if they would take the initiative to get together and unionize
Some private sector employees have unionized. But some of us prefer to work in environments where everyone is held responsible, everyone pulls their weight, and the slackers can be let go.
I don't hate any public employees, but I do hate unions.
Does it bug anyone besides me that public employees that are funded by our tax dollars tend to have these great benefit packages where they can retire after twenty years of "service" while the rest of us private sector chumps are probably going to end up working into our 70ies? I mean good for them but the fact that I'm their employer and provide such generous retirement benefits to them that I don't get to enjoy myself bothers me. Does it bother you? Sound off.
Retire after 20 years? Yes.
Generous? No.
I can technically retire at 20 years from my position. I get 1.5% of my salary + $300 for every year worked, minus anything I get from social security. My current salary is around $60k. At 20 years, I will get 30% of my salary + $6,000 (our merit board was scrapped in 2006, so we no longer get raises or cost of living adjustments, so no need to inflation adjust that; no one in our organization has had a raise since the day I started in 2007).
That's a pension $24,000/year at 20 years. Incidentally, my social security benefit will be a little more than $19k/year.
So, at 20 years, my pension benefit on a $60k salary is .... slightly less than $5k/year. We don't get a 401k. We do get a 457(b) with no matching and >2% maintenance fees (in other words, worthless).
The reality is that I will have to work more than 40 years to reach a level (80% of income) where my pension is enough to retire on. And since merit raises and cost of living adjustments have been permanently suspended, inflation will eat so heavily into my salary in those 40 years that I will ultimately never even catch up to my salary on day one. I would leave, but my employment includes an ethics ordinance (not governed by contract law and added without employee input in 2008) that forbids me from working in my industry for 12 months if I quit or am fired. I almost have enough savings to manage 12 months out of work....
A handful of highly compensated high level administrators get very nice public pensions that make headlines. The rest of us don't get very much. The reason the bills look so huge now is because those same administrators balanced their budgets by not paying into pension funds for decades.
Retire after 20 years? Yes.
Generous? No.
I can technically retire at 20 years from my position. I get 1.5% of my salary + $300 for every year worked, minus anything I get from social security. My current salary is around $60k. At 20 years, I will get 30% of my salary + $6,000 (our merit board was scrapped in 2006, so we no longer get raises or cost of living adjustments, so no need to inflation adjust that; no one in our organization has had a raise since the day I started in 2007).
That's a pension $24,000/year at 20 years. Incidentally, my social security benefit will be a little more than $19k/year.
So, at 20 years, my pension benefit on a $60k salary is .... slightly less than $5k/year. We don't get a 401k. We do get a 457(b) with no matching and >2% maintenance fees (in other words, worthless).
The reality is that I will have to work more than 40 years to reach a level (80% of income) where my pension is enough to retire on. And since merit raises and cost of living adjustments have been permanently suspended, inflation will eat so heavily into my salary in those 40 years that I will ultimately never even catch up to my salary on day one. I would leave, but my employment includes an ethics ordinance (not governed by contract law and added without employee input in 2008) that forbids me from working in my industry for 12 months if I quit or am fired. I almost have enough savings to manage 12 months out of work....
A handful of highly compensated high level administrators get very nice public pensions that make headlines. The rest of us don't get very much. The reason the bills look so huge now is because those same administrators balanced their budgets by not paying into pension funds for decades.
Just curious.
If you started your job at age 23, then you could quit at age 43 and collect the $24K a year pension and not have social security deducted until you actually take it - no? In the meantime, work a new job.
At a public charter without pension, many of the older teachers collect their pension from a previous traditional public school (never subtracting SS) while earning a salary teaching at the public charter. Meanwhile, the money being put in to the public pension does not properly cover the money going out.
I used to be jealous of public employees until i realized the reality. In a public position your earnings are capped, no matter what you do you likely will never be rich. It is a stable middle class job for the most part and will never be more, but on the plus side never be less! In the private sector earnings are unlimited, but you have to put in the work. There is less of hand out culture and more a cut throat one. Public jobs are great for people who want stability and not much else. You will never earn a million working for the water department, but on the flip side your fridge will never be empty. If you are willing to work hard, get educated, and advance with any means necessary than the private sector is much better for you. If you want to work 8 hours, go home and relax everyday then the public may be better for you
If you started your job at age 23, then you could quit at age 43 and collect the $24K a year pension and not have social security deducted until you actually take it - no? In the meantime, work a new job.
At a public charter without pension, many of the older teachers collect their pension from a previous traditional public school (never subtracting SS) while earning a salary teaching at the public charter. Meanwhile, the money being put in to the public pension does not properly cover the money going out.
Regardless of when I quit, if I worked 20 years I would not be allowed to collect my pension until I was 60 years old.
The rule is that, regardless of when you quit, you cannot start collecting until your age+number of years worked = 80 or age 65, whatever comes first. Public school teachers are normally ineligible for SS, so they may have the deduction but just have nothing to deduct.
Also, I take a permanent 4% penalty for every year I retire before age 60. So, even if it was eligible to retire at 43, I would take a permanent 68% reduction in my pension.
If you want to work 8 hours, go home and relax everyday then the public may be better for you
The 8 hours part is a little questionable unless you are working one of the rare hourly jobs (mostly low level clerks)....
I typically put in at least one 120 hour week a year, normally when a disaster hits. I once put in 7 straight 20 hour days during the Spring 2008 floods; at least they fed us (though that was because we could not leave the building). I have ~6 more 80 hour weeks a year (especially conference weeks, where I have to strictly log all my hours at the conference site from opening session to last session every day), with my typically week normally around 45 hours.
I do get 5 weeks of PTO a year, but I have never been allowed to use more than 3. (And my accrual cap is 7.5 weeks, which I have been at every year since my 2nd year, so I don't get compensated or banked in any way for those 2+ lost weeks every year). I get 10 holidays too, but typically work at least 4 of those a year. We are not paid for holidays (as in zero pay, not as in no holiday bonus).
Regardless of when I quit, if I worked 20 years I would not be allowed to collect my pension until I was 60 years old.
The rule is that, regardless of when you quit, you cannot start collecting until your age+number of years worked = 80 or age 65, whatever comes first. Public school teachers are normally ineligible for SS, so they may have the deduction but just have nothing to deduct.
Also, I take a permanent 4% penalty for every year I retire before age 60. So, even if it was eligible to retire at 43, I would take a permanent 68% reduction in my pension.
Ok, I'm going to correct something in bold.
There are only a few states (Texas I know of and apparently Missouri) where teachers do not pay into or collect Social Security. In the vast majority of areas teachers are covered by FICA.
I'm going to tell a pension story.
I have paid into the State Retirement System for just under 32 years, for most of that time the deduction was 5% (much of that time my agency deducted it after taxes). A few years ago the then Governor of Maryland, Martin O'Malley, had the deduction changed to 7% (as well as changing vesting from 5 years to 10 among some other adjustments). That extra 2% did not go to the underfunded retirement fund but to balance the State's General Fund.
Why was the Retirement System underfunded? Because the Governor and Legislature saw a pot of money they couldn't keep their hands off of.
The result? In a matter of four years the retirement fund went from being 105% funded for obligations down to 60%.
The new Governor, Larry Hogan, tried this year to start paying back the retirement system as the Legislature had agreed to do when the deduction was raised.
What did the Legislature do? They cut his payback amount in 1/2 to 1/4 of what they had agreed it to be a couple years earlier.
So go ahead (not you whom I quoted) and blame public employees but keep reelecting the people who are the real culprits causing the problems.
There are only a few states (Texas I know of and apparently Missouri) where teachers do not pay into or collect Social Security. In the vast majority of areas teachers are covered by FICA.
I thought it was more. I just happen to have experience with States that don't pay in (Illinois and California). I know it all depends on how your retirement system is structured.
The Social Security rules also depend on the pension system. I know there are pension systems out there that don't deduct social security benefits from your pension too. It just so happens that mine does. I have also seen the "rule of 80" as high as "rule of 85" and at least one system (the military) where there is no points system to start collecting (though they still have vesting that makes it impossible to collect before age 37).
If everyone became a public employee, there would be nothing left. Sorry, but public employees, no matter how well-intentioned they are (and many are great people), just don't contribute to an economy. There is no production going on, they don't adapt to market demands. They exist in a bubble, taking money from citizens based on what the government just asserts they are worth.
Maybe it sounds good to have these plush packages, but they are completely unsustainable and will certainly not be there for the employees in 20 years. Private sector workers are still in better shape, long run.
Public Sector employees don't contribute to the economy? Do you know how stupid that is? What you seem to be saying is that only people who are engaged in commerce or manufacture are contributing to the economy. Well let's see how all the "makers" do without public sector employees to educate their kids, put fires out, arrest criminals, fix potholes.
I don't know how old you are but a few decades ago many private sector employees belonged to unions and had pension plans. It was sustainable until the giant corporations 'decided' they couldn't afford it, funny how they give their own managers pensions but not their employees isn't it?
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