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I'm sure some private sector employers still offer pension plans, but it is very rare to run into one for new hires.
Assuming that 15% is true, that is probably including long-term employees at companies that used to offer them, and those employees are probably Boomers or older Gen-Xers grandfathered under legacy plans. If you include government employee and military, I'd buy that 15%.
The reason you doubt it is where you live. If you lived in major metropolitan area you would not doubt it. There are benefits to living in those higher cost areas (or else people would not do it). One of the benefits is you would more likely be aware how many companies (private companies) do offer pensions.
You can keep your blinders on, but, it does not change the facts.
Well, technically it's 1.1% per year of your service if you retire after age of 62, so that would be 33% instead of 30%
I was talking to a friend discussing the same topic the other day. He was a retired Lt.Col with 20 years of service. His monthly retired pay is actually less than another mutual friend who's a Major but will be retiring with 24 years of service. So length of service matters.
The military guys in SoCal gets Base Allowance for Housing (BAH) that's equivalent to $5K to $6K per month. So you're right, the base pay is significantly less than regular pay.
During my career, in accordance with High-Year-Tenure policy, an E6 was not allowed to stay on Active Duty any longer than 20 years.
I am an E6, I was forced onto pension at that time.
As a servicemember attains each higher rank their High-Year-Tenure is longer.
An E7 was allowed to stay in until they reach 24 years, etc.
I believe that High-Year-Tenure policy may have recently been modified.
I love exploring the history of Boomers as I am one of those born in 1960. History needs definitive years in order to be written. You can be born on either side of the different defining generational periods and it is all good I believe, but again to write history they need to define the time period.
I truly believe that the Boomers were the greatest generation. We were born in a period of time where the USA had just completed victories in two theatres of war an soon after what started I believe was the greatest period of prosperity in the US.
Industrial, manufacturing and the defense industry along with aerospace provided hundreds if not thousands of secure jobs that fueled a housing growth out of the cities to the suburbs.
Some of us also had parents who lived during the depression and those ideology’s were passed down to us.
We also lived with the Korean War, the Cuban Missle crisis, three assainations (the Kennedys, and MLK) the riots at the Democratic convention, Vietnam and Kent State.
We were also much of the last generation to experience stay at home moms where the father was the sole bread winner and discretionary money was not available so we teenagers held part time jobs.
All of the above defined us.
We are what current society makes us.
My twins were born in 2008 and have had chromebooks in school since middle school. They have cell phones and everything in school is taught around the chromebooks. They were homeschooled during Covid, witnessed food shortages and the other nuances of COVID-19. This will partly define their generation in the future.
As far as this current generation being lazy I will say this. Having recently retired as an Apprenticeship Administrator we were finding that those hired right out of high school do not have the patience to read tech manuals or repair manuals. Why, because everything they were taught was in conjunction with their Chromebooks. They were brought up knowing that any answer they need can be found on the internet. They also come to us without any life experiences as with both parents working there is descrentionary money available in the family so part time after school jobs aren’t needed.
Are they lazy, no. When the average person has the need to glance at their cellphone 100 times a day it is going to affect attention span.
Well, technically it's 1.1% per year of your service if you retire after age of 62, so that would be 33% instead of 30%
I was talking to a friend discussing the same topic the other day. He was a retired Lt.Col with 20 years of service. His monthly retired pay is actually less than another mutual friend who's a Major but will be retiring with 24 years of service. So length of service matters.
The military guys in SoCal gets Base Allowance for Housing (BAH) that's equivalent to $5K to $6K per month. So you're right, the base pay is significantly less than regular pay.
It is not just Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) - there are many other things like Subsistence allowance (BAS) and for Navy, things like Sub Pay, Sea Pay, Hazard duty pay, Nuclear Bonus, Flight Pay, Medical Pay, Command Pay, etc - but retirement pay is not based on those extras. Also BAS and BAH are not taxed so it makes them worth more.
FERS (Gov't pension for most now) and Military pay differ a bunch - little in common other than availability of TSP (401K). But the bottom line is that these pensions are still available if you are willing to do the job.
As far as this current generation being lazy I will say this. Having recently retired as an Apprenticeship Administrator we were finding that those hired right out of high school do not have the patience to read tech manuals or repair manuals. Why, because everything they were taught was in conjunction with their Chromebooks. They were brought up knowing that any answer they need can be found on the internet. They also come to us without any life experiences as with both parents working there is descrentionary money available in the family so part time after school jobs aren’t needed.
Are they lazy, no. When the average person has the need to glance at their cellphone 100 times a day it is going to affect attention span.
We are all products of our environment. I never learned to “program” analog computers. But I did (and do) work on carburetors. I never wrote with a goose-feather dipped in a vat of ink. But I do write in cursive. And I never had to milk a cow. But my girlfriend’s parents do. It’s a combination of type of upbringing (urban, suburban, rural) and the technology of the era.
From teaching college students and interacting with fresh graduates and interns, my assessment is they’re not in the least lazy. But they are internet-dependent and learn from you-tube videos rather than textbooks. Some don’t even own textbooks, instead “finding” free versions online in pdf. The eagerness to learn isn’t generationally dependent. The methods, definitely are.
FERS (Gov't pension for most now) and Military pay differ a bunch - little in common other than availability of TSP (401K). But the bottom line is that these pensions are still available if you are willing to do the job.
I am a FERS retiree. I think military pension is better than FERS. Military pension is 50% base pay can be had after 20 years, where as FERS is only 30% - 33% after 30 years of service.
One thing about both services is they give young people a lot of responsibilities. The agency I worked for also provides lots of training opportunities. It's only upto you to take advantage of these opportunities. This compares to the private sector, based on my personal experience, that doesn't encourage those training as much. Those training takes time that can not be billed to customers.
From teaching college students and interacting with fresh graduates and interns, my assessment is they’re not in the least lazy. But they are internet-dependent and learn from you-tube videos rather than textbooks. Some don’t even own textbooks, instead “finding” free versions online in pdf. The eagerness to learn isn’t generationally dependent. The methods, definitely are.
When I started out in the 80s, the previous generation of engineers did not know much about computers & they had this natural "fear". These were the engineers who had "assistants" who used math table to do calculations. The "assistants" were mostly young ladies, 20 some years later the engineers still talk about how pretty some of them were.
The 80s were the beginning of desktop PCs and us young guys who were smart enough to learn DOS and able to program algorithm into codes looking like we were able to walk on water by these older guys. I'd imagine it's the same way we look at young engineers today who're able to program in AI.
But for us Boomers who grew up in modest household & HAD TO get summer jobs to pay for school bring a sense of work ethic. We knew how important those money were. Plus because there were many of us, we had to compete for jobs, relocate, and take a lower pay because of competition. That's a different experience the young people grow up these days.
I've always thought it odd that the cut off for baby boomers is 1964. If the boom was spawned by the end of WW2 and subsequent regrowth, I think nearly 20 years after the fact is pushing it. That could include a parent and child, as mentioned in the OP. There's a chart on Wikipedia showing a peak birthrate uptick around 1947, and it rapidly declines after that. Lots of lonely men wanting to share their love after the war, I imagine.
My parents were born post-WW2 in foreign countries, but later moved to the US. Does that make them Boomers or does it only refer to US born babies? I haven't looked at population rates of other countries involved in WW2 and am curious if they had a similar baby boom right after the war. Maybe not so much if your city is a pile of rubble and everyone is starving and living in misery.
I've always thought it odd that the cut off for baby boomers is 1964. If the boom was spawned by the end of WW2 and subsequent regrowth, I think nearly 20 years after the fact is pushing it..
Good post.
I agree.. I consider the Baby Boom generation over by 1960. And I (personally & specifically) almost always identify Baby Boomer characteristics, with people who were born in the mid thru late 40s. Because they were the people who had their childhoods/early adulthood most shaped by JFK assassination, Vietnam draft, hippie culture, etc.
Someone born in '64 wasn't shaped by Vietnam draft, wasn't alive for Kennedy's assassination, was too young to be getting divorced in the 7os, etc. A kid born in '64 would've been more shaped as Gen X.
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