Would You Consider Low-Paying Gov't Job for Security, Pension? (employee, 401k, retirement plan)

[Huckleberry3911948]

can and have. the secret to success is a steady stream of income.
let me spell that for you s t e a d y
rollcoaster success and failure is not conducive to happiness.

[caligirlz]

It also depends where the job is located. In some cities, that would be considered good pay.

[theoldnorthstate]

interesting that a headhunter called. most jobs have to be filled through the OPM process or fed process some way.

would check that before you go too far with it.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by mdand3boys

Plus, it accrues if you don't use it all, unlike in the private sector, where we LOSE it.

Only if you work at a really crappy company. I've never had that happen in the private sector. They may cap how many days of vacation you can carry over from year to year, but that is it.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Only if you work at a really crappy company. I've never had that happen in the private sector. They may cap how many days of vacation you can carry over from year to year, but that is it.

I work in the public sector and we can carry over up to ten days vacation each year. Above that and you forfeit it.

[TheShadow]

Both my hubby and I have worked for government (or publicly owned) entities for almost our entire working careers. Me for 25 years, him for 34. The benefits (medical, dental, vacation, sick pay, FMLA, etc. )are actually worth more than the salary, and there are many opportunities to advance if you make the effort. My salary quadrupled over the 21 years I was with my last employer, because I applied for so many promotional opportunities, and worked hard to max out my merit increases. I am now retired (retired at 51) with a pension that is of course far less than my final salary, but between myself and my hubby (who retired at age 55), our pensions are guaranteed for life and enough to live on quite nicely. Our investment income and rental real estate is the gravy we use for our travel and toys. When we are old enough for SS, we will be in clover. I am still young enough to start a new career or work at whatever I please now. When my DH retired he cashed out 4 months of vacation and over was able to take credit for over 6 months of sick leave that he had accrued over the years. It is well worth it if you stick it out and make the effort to work to promote yourself.

[maus]

If you don't have a lot saved in your 401K or some other retirement vehicle, or some substantial net worth, a government pension is really hard to beat when you are older as such pensions are practially non-existent now in the private sector. I would consider looking into it if I were you. As others have mentioned, the other benefits are very competitive with the private sector.

I don't know if this is U.S. federal government or not, but my understanding is you have to have 20 years in to get some sort of pension (annuity) after a set age. With state and local governments, I would imagine that threshold would vary tremendously with qualifying for pensions.

[TheShadow]

Different agencies calculate their pensions based upon various formulas. One of the most common is "2% at 55". Others are "2% at 60", "3% at 55", etc. What this means is you are eligible to receive at 55 years old 2% of your final compensation times the number of years that you were employed there. So for example: if you retire at 55 and your final compensation (your salary the year you retired) is $100K, than you will get 2% of that ($2000) times the number of years you worked there, say 25 years...$2000 times 25 years equals $50,000 annually. If you retire later or earlier your percentage may be adjusted from the 2% based upon a formula that your agency uses. The older you are at retirement the larger your pension might be based upon the 3 variables (your percentage based upon age at retirement, your final compensation, and your years with the agency). Most government work, even for various agencies can be combined, i.e. 10 years with the post office and 12 with the IRS equals 22 years employment with the feds. The 10 years referred to by the OP is your vesting period. In other words, you would not be eligible for any pension until after 10 years employment, regardless of age. After that 10 years, you are eligible based upon any other criteria that they have.

[Mightyqueen801]

^^^ Mine works similarly to that (it's a state system). It's 2% for the first 30 years, and 1.5% each year thereafter. The pension is based on the average of your three highest consecutive years' salaries, called the FAS/final average salary. So, I have 35 years in, and right now I'm at 67.5%. My FAS years are in the past. They used to let us sell back vacation time, in advance and paid over the course of the year's paychecks, which would boost your salary a bit, but some people whined about that and so the politicians cracked down on us greedy public workers and took that benefit away. It hurt because it was a way to get a little extra money in your check, since we've had no raises since 2009 and have no idea when we'll get a raise in the future. So my salary now is almost $8K lower than it was in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Of course, now if you can't take the time off for vacation, you just lose it, and it's difficult to get vacation time approved because they won't fill the empty positions of the older employees who are retiring in droves. Knowing I can leave makes it easier to put up with this bs, at least for now. A guy I worked with lost 17 days last year--he couldn't take them because of what he was working on, which required sixteen-hour days and sometimes weekends. When he asked if he could carry them into January to take a winter vacation, they flipped him the bird and said, "Sorry, Charlie. Them's the rules."

That is the downside of working in the public sector. Most of the time, the private sector IS making more money than you are, plus they get things like stock options and end-of-year bonuses that the public sector can't have. Someone who left my office went to work for Bloomberg and they even got a huge holiday party in the Museum of Natural History with tons of food and booze. We have to PAY for our own holiday party at a crappy Mexican restaurant, and if you say you don't want to go, the boss gets angry and accuses you of not being part of the team.

In recent years, however--and at various points in decades past, the private sector has NOT been as lucrative in a lot of cases as the public sector, and when that happens, the private-sector populace grabs their collective crotches with one hand and dances around their patio firepits waving the other in a clenched fist, shrieking wildly about how the public employees are ripping them off. Then the politicians, who want those votes, look around to see how they can slap down the public worker and use that as a reason to get re-elected the next time out. It's tiresome after you've seen it happen for a few up-and-down cycles.

But at least we've got our pensions, if we live long enough to collect them. Two people in my organization have dropped dead suddenly in the past month. I only knew one of them, but still, it's kind of scary to hear when people younger than I am drop dead.

[trishguard]

Originally Posted by KicktheCan

I've been contacted by a government agency about an opportunity. It's in my field and described as "senior-level," but the pay is abysmally low for someone with my experience, education, performance, etc. The recruiter called me for an initial head's up, I presume, cautioning that the pay is only in the low-mid 40s, and asking if I'd still be interested.

As a government job, it does offer somewhat generous paid vacation and sick leave that accrues. It also comes with a pension if you stick it out for 10 years, plus tuition assistance should I ever entertain the idea of going back to school for another degree.

I understand that government gigs are supposedly more stable than private sector employment, which may be one reason why people who work within it forgo higher salaries with other companies for comparable positions.

But would it be worth it, long term?

If you are having trouble finding other work I'd jump on the opportunity if you can make ends meet. I'd also jump on the tuition assistance and start taking courses to prepare for a job change within the government or in the private sector.