SacBee: The State Employee, Underpaid but Over-Pensioned? (Los Angeles, Sacramento: live in, retirement)

[18Montclair]

The State Worker: Employees underpaid but over-pensioned? - Sacramento Politics - California Politics | Sacramento Bee (http://www.sacbee.com/2010/10/21/3120063/the-state-worker-employees-underpaid.html - broken link)

[Majin]

underpaid and under-pensioned

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

Overpaid and over pensioned. In the current set up you can retire after 55 and get a guarenteed check for the remainder of your life. Who else does that? In the real world you either prepaired well or you keep working to make up the shortfall.

[Highnlite.]

Bogus, the average pension for retired state employees is $20,000 per annum.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Highnlite.

Bogus, the average pension for retired state employees is $20,000 per annum.

That doesn't sound like much. But the average state employee can retire as early as age 55, some as early as age 50.

If the retirement formula was the same but with the retirement age at 65 instead of 55, I'd agree with you.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by Majin

underpaid and under-pensioned

Naaahhh. That's a scam and we both know it.

If state workers were underpaid, the state would have a hard time getting employees. Outside a brief window of time from about 1999-2001 during the dot com boom, that just hasn't been the case for the overwhelming majority of positions.

In some instances, I think their pay is on the low side, especially for state workers who live in expensive areas like the Bay Area or Los Angeles....but their benefits are still fat. However, the cops & prison guards definitely have bloated pay AND benefits.

[Highnlite.]

That doesn't sound like much. But the average state employee can retire as early as age 55, some as early as age 50.

If the retirement formula was the same but with the retirement age at 65 instead of 55, I'd agree with you.

Early retirement is prorated, sure, you can retire at 55, but, your pension will suck, wait until you are 60, you get more, but not as much as if you left at 65.

I think there is a lot of BS coming from the whackos about the state benefits and pensions.

There are a whole bunch of ads attacking Jerry Brown for opening the door to higher pensions and benefits, yeah?
well, duh, how many Republican governors has California had in the 40 years since Jerry Brown left? And how hard did they work to close that door?

Yep, not much, the Republicans are as much to blame for whatever state the state is in as the democrats, and that is not going to change.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Highnlite.

Early retirement is prorated, sure, you can retire at 55, but, your pension will suck, wait until you are 60, you get more, but not as much as if you left at 65.

I think there is a lot of BS coming from the whackos about the state benefits and pensions.

There are a whole bunch of ads attacking Jerry Brown for opening the door to higher pensions and benefits, yeah?
well, duh, how many Republican governors has California had in the 40 years since Jerry Brown left? And how hard did they work to close that door?

Yep, not much, the Republicans are as much to blame for whatever state the state is in as the democrats, and that is not going to change.

Actually, they tried to close the door on several occasions but the Democrats who pervaded the Legislature for much of that time wouldn't buck the unions.

While perhaps one in name only, Republican Governor Schwartzenegger just managed to do what others tried and failed.

But it shouldn't matter which party did or has done what. The issue is, what's been best for California which neither party has been very good at maintaining.

[steel7]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

The cops & prison guards definitely have bloated pay AND benefits.

Thats for sure.

[smokingGun]

But don't state employees forfeit their rights to federal Social Security when they pay into the state retirement system? I thought that was what one of my old neighbors who worked for the Board of Equalization told me. If that's the case their pensions would actually be in-line with private sector workers who do receive SS in addition to their defined-benefit plans/401k's/IRA's.