Interesting note on public employee benefits... (wage, salary, legal, healthcare)

[evilnewbie]

"A highway patrolman with 28 years of service can take home a pension of more than $90,000 a year"
Read more: California Gov. Brown To Seek Sweeping Pension Cuts | Fox News

So I thought I do a little math... say you live about 20 years after retirement... at 90k a year, you will get about 1,800,000 in pension payout... then ask yourself if you work 30 years to get 1,800,000 in pension, you would have to save about 60,000 a year (assuming 0% interest) or a little under 50,000 a year (assuming 6% interest)... who here saves 50k a year in a private sector job while earning 90k a year? Yet this public employee does? The officer is basically earning 140k a year.... This is not including other benefits like healthcare or whatever that may be included in the public retirement programs... and then they mentioned the typical public employee earning 31k a year in pension which is about 620,000 in pension... that would mean a savings rate of 20666 a year if they retire after 30 years of working... the legal contribution rate of 401k is 16,500 for private workers and 5,000 for IRAs... and the private sector HAS to contribute that much... and that's if they even are offered a retirement package for the 401k... Public workers are way overcompensated in retirement benefits alone...

I think it is ironic that all these Democratic governors who promise the opposite of what the GOP offers during election time will do EXACTLY what the GOP does once they get into office... it tells you the honesty of a liberal... win by all means... even lying... its ironic that the pension (which is similar to Social Security) is being made privatized into a 401k hybrid program... ironically it was the GOP who said to go that way to SAVE retirement access... It doesn't matter if its Illinois and California or New York Governors... all the same... they pursue GOP-type reforms... which they spout rhetoric against during election time... which tells you another thing, the liberals have no idea how to save the country, they have to borrow someone else's idea.. ironic that is their own opposition's idea...

[oz in SC]

Why else does anyone work for the government?

It is the benefits and the easy work.
I applied for a fedgov. job up here,it had some official sounding title but was basically you were to hunt and kill feral hogs in the National Forests...you got to camp out,go hunting AND they paid you....

[Fred314X]

Of course, Fox News would never run a story because it has a particular agenda. Why would I even think such a thing?

[LetsRock]

Originally Posted by oz in SC

Why else does anyone work for the government?

It is the benefits and the easy work.
I applied for a fedgov. job up here,it had some official sounding title but was basically you were to hunt and kill feral hogs in the National Forests...you got to camp out,go hunting AND they paid you....

It used to be called "serving your community" which implied you took less in compensation.

[oz in SC]

Originally Posted by Fred314X

Of course, Fox News would never run a story because it has a particular agenda. Why would I even think such a thing?

Quick,change the topic....

Any thoughts on WHY gov. employees should receive such generous retirement packages?

[oz in SC]

Originally Posted by LetsRock

It used to be called "serving your community" which implied you took less in compensation.

Perhaps now it is 'milking your community'???

[slackjaw]

Originally Posted by evilnewbie

So I thought I do a little math... say you live about 20 years after retirement... at 90k a year, you will get about 1,800,000 in pension payout... then ask yourself if you work 30 years to get 1,800,000 in pension, you would have to save about 60,000 a year (assuming 0% interest) or a little under 50,000 a year (assuming 6% interest)...

While I'd certainly acknowledge the absurdity of some public pension plans, your calculation are a bit suspect.

According to Simple savings calculator -- Bankrate.com if I save $1,800/month for 30 years at 6% I end up with $1,800,000. That means you'd have to save $21.6k/year, not $50k/year.

The biggest problem with many of these pension programs is the loopholes they have that allow for abuse that is just accepted. Cop saves up sick/vacation time then cashes it all in during final year to greatly distort salary calculations, along with piling on overtime at the end. Bottom line is minimum retirement age for a healthy adult should be at least 65 years old, none of this retire at 54 bull****, and to prevent spiking salary calculations should be done similar to social security at the very least an average of ten highest inflation adjusted wage years.

[GregW]

Too bad they gave you a gun to hunt the hogs. In order to save money they should have only provided a spear.

[oz in SC]

Originally Posted by GregW

Too bad they gave you a gun to hunt the hogs. In order to save money they should have only provided a spear.

I am not sure if they provided the firearm,but it is typical gov. response to a problem,spend an inordinate amount of money instead of actually having people pay THEM.