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View Full Version : When I Grow Up I Want To Work For A Government Agency



Kathianne
05-24-2009, 04:37 AM
It's all in the benefits, which we pay for:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.smith22may22,0,7451798.column


Baltimore pension dispute illuminates public/private divide
Ron Smith
May 22, 2009
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon has withdrawn a pension reform measure that by any logic should have been carried out. Baltimore, like countless municipalities (and states), is faced with a growing gap between pension obligations to its multitude of retired workers and the ability to pay for them. TheBaltimore Sun's Annie Linskey tells us that the legislation that would have eliminated a provision giving all retired fire and police workers a permanent boost in their pension payments in years when the pension fund performs well was withdrawn because, in the words of the mayor's spokesman, "We're looking for a bigger fix to the system."

What does that mean? I don't know. I do know that the days of lavish defined pension benefits for public sector workers are coming to an end, despite desperate efforts to maintain them. Mathematically, these plans can't meet their mounting obligations with their dwindling resources....

...The gap between the public sector and private business in wages and benefits continues to grow. Last month, USA Today reported federal figures showing that public employees earned benefits worth $13.38 per hour in December 2008, compared to $7.98 for private sector workers.

A full-time government worker receives benefits worth an average of $28,830 per year. A private worker's benefits are worth an average of $16,598. Yet in this time of recession/depression, the shrinking private sector foots the bill for massive bailouts of public employees. In the nongovernment world, jobs are being lost by the hundreds of thousands each month. Government workers are secure in theirs. As the ordinary American becomes more aware of the disparity and unfairness of the current system, anger builds.

There was a time when people took government jobs for the security they offered. The bargain was that they would sacrifice pay for that security. Over time, the bargain tilted totally in favor of the government workers as they got both job security and higher pay than their counterparts outside government. Can this system be sustained? I think not, but we shall see.