Public vs. private retirements
23rd December 2010
Defenders of public employee pension systems often make the case that pension benefits are not all that generous. The outrageous cases you see on the news — Long Island police retiring in their 40s with pensions in excess of base pay, administrators “retiring” with six-figure pensions and then going back to work with another government agency, one ex-FDNY firefighter running marathons on his $86,000 “disability” pension — are the exceptions, they say.
The data, however, tells a different story. According to the Census Bureau, the average New York retiree receiving a corporate or union pension — a retiree from the private sector — was receiving an annual benefit of $13,100 in 2009. For state and local government retirees, that figure was more than twice as high: $27,600. And that average figure includes retirees who were part-time workers or only spent part of their careers in government; full-career retirees often do far better.
January 7th, 2011 at 07:14
In my case, working for 30 years at a far lower pay scale than a comparable private sector job, AND contributing 6% annually to my pension plan which I could not opt out of. The benefit of (and risk of not living long enough for) a decent retirement was the primary reason for accepting this trade-off. What is unfair about that?
January 7th, 2011 at 07:19
And, of course, everybody else’s case is just exactly like your case.