[quote=deadzone]Again, I think you are living in a time warp. The vast majority of federal workers do not have guaranteed pension. This is not a change that happened recently.
But again, you miss the whole point. Sequestration is not isolated to federal workers. In fact the civil service workers, other than being furloughed for a few days, are the least likely to be laid off in the long run. The hundreds of thousands of defense contractors are the ones who will be more likely to lose their jobs depending on how big the defense cuts are.
Let’s go over this again class. If government cuts spending, a lot of people will lose their jobs and these jobs are not just isolated to defense workers. If people lose jobs, they have less income. If people have less income, they spend less. If they spend less, businesses that rely on spending will suffer. Eventually this is not good for real estate. Simple logic here.
Again, very few workers nowadays have guaranteed pensions so don’t count on that to sustain the economy.[/quote]
Have to agree with deadzone here. We know a number of people who are civilian contractors for the DOD and they are sitting on pins and needles in anticipation of this sequestration. Many contractors have already been reducing their numbers, and they’re prepared to let go of many more employees. These are people *without* govt pensions. Even the federal employees we know don’t have pensions that pay anywhere near 100% of their regular pay, and these are not new employees, either.
If you look at the computation for retirement benefits in BG’s link, you’ll see this:
Your benefit was computed differently, if you retired under one of the provisions below
Special Provision for Air Traffic Controllers, Firefighters, Law Enforcement Officers, Capitol Police, Supreme Court Police, or Nuclear Materials Couriers
1.7% of your high-3 average salary multiplied by your years of service which do not exceed 20, PLUS
1% of your high-3 average salary multiplied by your service exceeding 20 years
Member of Congress or Congressional Employee (or any combination of the two) must have at least 5 years of service as a Member of Congress and/or Congressional Employee
1.7% of your high-3 average salary multiplied by your years of service as a Member of Congress or Congressional Employee which do not exceed 20, PLUS
1% of your high-3 average salary multiplied by your years of other service
That’s nowhere near 100% of base pay, even at the very highest rates. Even if you add in the TSP and SS, I highly doubt they’ll come anywhere near 100% of pay.
