While everyone’s attention was focused on the two union guys in Illinois who got a teachers’ pension for one day of subbing, over in Rhode Island the General Treasurer’s office released figures claiming 58 percent of retired state teachers and 48 percent of retired state employees have pensions that pay them 100 percent or more of their final average salary when they retired.
This reminds me of the dialogue from Animal Crackers:
Public Sector pensions should NEVER exceed 40% of the average of their last 3 year’s pay…. without ANY COLA increases (ever).
Why ???????
Because that 40% is on the extreme upper end of the pensions Private Sector employees get from there employers, AND …. Public Sector workers are NOT “special” and deserving of bigger pensions and better benefits … 80-90% of which is pay for by Taxpayer contributions and the investment earnings thereon.
Public sector pensions should always be 75% of final three years with a 3.5% automatic, compounded COLA. The pensions should be properly funded by employees and employers to ensure they remain at an 80% funded level. The pensions should remain beyond the reach of Teanderthals. Meeting the annual required contribution should be mandatory in law. Such pension plans should be ubiquitous in both the public and private sectors. This will force saving on the parrt of millions. (I think it is Australia that has mandatory savings of 10% of all salaries.)
Also, those who are better educated and more highly skilled on average (public sector workers) should receive comensurate compensation.
Al, And the money to provide the extraordinarily rich pensions that you and similar greedy Civil Servants would like (all on the backs of Taxpayers) will materialize when Pigs Fly !
Consider “saving” (from your own net income) just like Private Sector Taxpayers must do.
Or is is … Oh, Not Me. After all, I’m “special”. I’m a Civil Servant.
“Public sector pensions should always be 75% of final three years with a 3.5% automatic, compounded COLA.”
What horse did you ride in on, Al? Just like that?
What about this: “Public sector pensions should always be 75% of final three years, or twice as much as the maximum standard social security benefit, whichever is less. Public sector pensions should be subject to an annual COLA that is equivalent to the rate of inflation, or the COLA granted social security recipients, whichever is less.”
That’s still damn good.