[quote=AN] . . . An average of pension at $28k/year comes out to $800k-$1M over 30-40 years of receiving such benefits. A $100k/year pension comes out to $3M-$4M over 30-40 years. . . . [/quote]
AN, TG was talking about SDCERA. As I posted earlier on this thread, this “avg $28K annually” pension was predicated on the employee being in “Tier A.” Only about 10-15% percent of employees in “Tier A” have actually retired (10-15% of approx 17K employees = 1700 – 2550 employees). SRT to non-safety workers, the average pension for employees who retired under Tier I is about $1150 mo and the average pension for those (few) who retired until Tier II is about $850 mo (most workers under “Tier II” elected to change their tier to “Tier A” in March of 2002 and take much higher payroll deductions for retirement). Even though eligible to retire at 55, the vast majority of SDCERA workers retire at age 60-62, because the age-55 pension is only a portion of the full pension, unless the worker already has 30 years service in by age 55 (with no interruptions such as FML and LWOP).
I personally don’t see where these workers are collecting pensions for “30-40 years.” Very, very often, public workers retire a little earlier than they want to due to health reasons. I personally have been to a few funerals of both active and retired SDCERA members. The stress of many of these jobs (due to relentless demand by the public) causes many these workers to stop taking care of themselves as soon as they reach a level where they are responsible for other workers. What I SEE is a lot of early disability and a fair amount of early deaths.
As to “Tier A” employees (whose “avg pension” will be $28K annually), the jury is still out on them. I use a multitude of county offices and courts weekly and from what I can see, for the most part, this group does not take care of themselves from an even earlier age. Obesity is rampant among this mostly Gen X/Y group which was not nearly so omnipresent in my group (boomers).
I don’t see the average public worker (ESP safety and CALTRANS) living beyond their seventies and even that is a stretch to me. What I have seen is that many workers are actually too disabled to work the last 1-3 years of their public “career” but endeavor to keep their positions anyway … until they can’t.
Again, SDCERA workers are but a microcosm of all public workers in CA. I myself am a SDCERA “deferred retiree.”
