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I don't know why people are posting that the private sector positions make more than the government jobs. That has been proven to be false long ago. Government jobs always pay more especially when you take benefits into consideration.
Gov't workers get their retirement pensions and the average private sector does not. That is why all the cities are going bankrupt. They can't keep up with pensions from the city employee pensions. In California they are supporting 4 police forces. 3 retired 1 working. It is not sustainable.
I don't know why people are posting that the private sector positions make more than the government jobs. That has been proven to be false long ago. Government jobs always pay more especially when you take benefits into consideration.
Gov't workers get their retirement pensions and the average private sector does not. That is why all the cities are going bankrupt. They can't keep up with pensions from the city employee pensions. In California they are supporting 4 police forces. 3 retired 1 working. It is not sustainable.
I think that is true in many situations. My friend is a librarian for a local state university. I have listened to her complain for many, many years about how she gets less pay than librarians in the private sector. Well, maybe, but she still earns much more than anyone else I know in any other job in the private sector some who have much more demanding jobs.
I am not demeaning the diffiuculty of what she does. I am talking about salaried people who put in long hours without overtime at really demanding occupations who do not have the benefits she does. Or the pay. But like many in the public sector, she does not realize this.
And I kind of think her belief that she earns less than those of comparable positions in the private sector is a myth prepetuated by her union.
In any case, I think maybe by now the OP may realize that he would have been more wise to just post about the differences between his and his friend's retirement packages and open the situation to discussion rather than stating how "unfair" it is. Because fairness has nothing to do with it.
It's unfair I don't have Donald Trump's money but hey, what are you gonnna do?
But you DO have the choice! You could work for the post office, start at the bottom, sort mail or deliver. You could work your way up. My husband started as a letter carrier, got his BSBA then his MBA and worked his way up the ladder retiring at a high level.
You realize, of course, that if you had been saving $100 per month, and investing them in a good growth mutual fund for 36 years that you would now have a total of 651,118.43, and even at modest interest rate of 6%, you would be making $40,000 per year in interest or the equivalent of approximately $3,200 per month.
Nawww, I don't think so. My handy, dandy PV/FV calculator, to which I'm attached the way younger people are to their iPhones, says $100/mo @6%x 36 years = $152,491.
Now, if OP could save $400/mo@6%x36 years, he would have $609,961. Of course, on a government salary at the beginning, saving $400/mo would be pretty tough if you're also trying to save for kids education, paying off a house, etc. But, you could make up for it later.
Had I to do it over again, I would have definitely taken a government job over the private sector. Like Stealth Rabbit, I, too, got screwed out of 75% of my promised retirement benefit by a very rich employer. I could really use a 4 figure pension, instead of the one I have which doesn't cover groceries.
My Dw checked at OPM and got hired with the commissary. Every month they have openings.
Does the Post Office even have a future, anymore? My father retired as a supervisor 45 years ago. The pension and lifetime health insurance was a godsend to my stepmother. In those days, government wages were paltry. It's only the past 20 years or govt salaries/benefits have outstripped the private sector which has pretty much kept 1970s wages for the unskilled.
Gov't workers get their retirement pensions and the average private sector does not. That is why all the cities are going bankrupt. They can't keep up with pensions from the city employee pensions. In California they are supporting 4 police forces. 3 retired 1 working. It is not sustainable.
California municipal pensions, in some instances, are OUTRAGEOUS. Those are not the norm for the most civil service employees.
We had some chicanery here, however, with our Milwaukee County pensions, where long-term, highly-paid ($100k/yr) employees were walking out with lump sums of $800,000 - $1,000,000, plus a lifetime pension of $3k mo., with COLA, and paid health insurance. The Pension Fund has paid out over a billion dollars just in those backdrop payments. Our County Board either lost its mind, or colluded to do this, or were completely misled. After a 15-year scandal, it still isn't clear where the fault lies. The County Exec. benefitted not at all as he retired under a cloud and waived his rights to the huge lump sum he could have received. He still has a decent pension, however, plus health insurance. Just not a bag of money.
Sadly, I could have had a job at the County in 1984 but turned it down, never thinking my employer would screw its employees over and that the County would enact that crazy backdrop. A guy from the County HR Dept. actually showed up at my house one night, saying the Union was complaining the County wasn't hiring from the Civil Service List, and did I want a job. Today, I, too, could have walked out with at least $200,000 and a monthly benefit of $2k, plus SS, plus health insurance.
After all nobody else can do it, just do not count the million other folks who are doing it
But they were either in the right place at the right time or they have the right skin color or gender, or they were hired before affirmative action became so draconian.
But they were either in the right place at the right time or they have the right skin color or gender, or they were hired before affirmative action became so draconian.
Or they had a better skill set, better attitude toward the world and the citizens of their jurisdiction etc etc etc. Sometimes people are just more qualified and pleasant to work with. My guess is if you look at government hires in your jurisdictions you would see a lot of folks hired who resemble you and were just more desirable candidates so they got hired.
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