Reason #1,666 why Amerika is broke.
Dennis Cauchon reports for USA Today, Aug. 15, 2012, that more than 21,000 or 1.2% of retired federal workers receive lifetime government pensions of $100,000 or more per year. Of these, nearly 2,000 have federal pensions that pay $125,000 or more annually, and 151 take home $150,000 or more. Six federal retirees get more than $200,000 a year.
By comparison, here are the percentages of other retirees who get pensions of $100,000 or more:
- 0.1% of military retirees
- 0.2% of the New York State and Local Retirement System
- 0.4% of the New Jersey retirement system
- Comparable private figures aren’t available.
Federal retirees receiving 6-figure pensions spread across a broad swath of the federal workforce: doctors, budget analysts, accountants, public relations specialists and human resource managers. Most do not get Social Security benefits. Those receiving $100,000 or more in federal pensions icnlude:
- Law enforcement, the most common profession receiving 6-figure pensions, including 326 Drug Enforcement Administration agents, 237 IRS investigators and 186 FBI agents.
- 714 from the U.S. Postal Service.
- 444 from the Social Security Administration
- A retired Smithsonian zoologist has a $162,000 annual lifetime pension.
- The six $200,000-plus pensions include a doctor, a dentist and a credit union regulator, plus three retirees whose occupations weren’t listed.
Pensions are a growing federal budget burden, rising twice as fast as inflation over the last decade. Pension payments cost $70 billion last year, plus $13 billion for retiree health care. Taxpayers face a $2 trillion unfunded liability — the amount needed to cover future benefits — for these programs, according to the government’s audited financial statement. (Read: The Truth About the Post Office’s Financial Mess.)
“These people are highly trained, highly skilled and often put their lives on the line in law enforcement,” says Julie Tagen, legislative director of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees. “It’s a very, very small portion of retirees at that ($100,000) level.”
“Government pensions are vastly more generous than those in the private sector,” says economist Veronique de Rugy of the market-oriented Mercatus Center. “It’s no coincidence that if there is a good plan, it’s available to federal employees rather than in the private sector.”
USA TODAY and the Asbury Park (N.J.) Press— both owned by Gannett — analyzed the Civil Service Retirement System database, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request. The Office of Personnel Management withheld some information, including names, ages and length of service.
The records cover 1.9 million federal civilian pensions. Congress members were not included, nor were military retirees.
The average federal pension pays $32,824 annually. The average state and local government pension pays $24,373, Census data show. The average military pension is $22,492. which has one of the best remaining private pensions, pays an average of $18,250 per retiree, Labor Department filings show.
The federal government has two retirement systems: one for those hired before 1984 and another for those hired after. Under the older system, employees did not participate in Social Security. The older system covers 78% of current retirees and accounts for 96% of 6-figure pensions. All federal retirees receive health benefits.
~Eowyn
I wish someone told me when I was young to get a gubmint job.. Then I could be a part of the elite in this country..
This is really very broad. It gives the impression that someone like my husband is going to get a fat cat retirement after all the years he’s served. Yeah he makes a pretty good wage right now, but when he retires he will be eligible for something around 1200 dollars a month, close to social security. That’s not exactly riches. And that is before taxes and medicare premiums. The employees they are talking about are uppper echelon federal employees. I really wish people would stop giving the erroneous impression that all government workers retired with huge amounts of money. Most do NO.
By the way the phrase “all federal retirees receive health benefits” is a midleading statement. For example my husband will get medicare just like t anyone else who has paid into it. It will cost him just like me, an additional $110 a month (so far until it is raised) for the rest of his life, and it comes out of that 1200 dollars a month social security. So far as any other coverage, that’s up to him like anyone else to go out and buy a supplemental.
We all know that the government is too big. We need less of it. Until we decide that we don’t need an excess number of people running this government, that we don’t need as many agencies as we do; the sooner we can rein in the costs.
But let’s not put blame on people who don’t deserve it, who have worked hard for many years, and have aged commensurate with the stress and responsibility of their job, and in some cases whose health has been affected by it. There are those who get paid too much, and I realize that, but my husband isn’t one of them, and there are thousands like him.
Who said that ALL federal retirees get 6-figure pensions? Read my post, where it’s clearly stated that it’s 1.2% or 21,000 federal retirees, which is 21,000 too many.
I’m thinking that people shouldn’t volunteer to serve their country
and expect a pension in return …other than social security IF they
need it. A man’s pay should be sufficient reward for his efforts…
and that pay should be at market rates.
If I understand Linda correctly, her husband will receive approx. $1200 from pension PLUS social security, right? I agree that’s not riches, but it is also $1200 a month more than I will be receiving. All I will get is social security – any additional will have to come out of my savings, IRAs, etc.That is money I saved out of my paycheck and socked away, unlike the pension he will receive that did NOT come out of his paycheck. Technically, his pension came out of all our paychecks and is free money for him. Do I understand correctly??
Unsustainable…
Kathy, techinically his pension comes out of his paycheck too. He has paid into it. So get along little dogie. stop whining.
Linda, Me, whine? Never in a million would this little dogie whine
Land sakes, people just get so snippy when you ask a question. And by the way, I didn’t think you were whining either….for 4 paragraphs.
MY APOLOGIES, i get wrought up, because it just seems federal workers get blamed for the injustices in private sector jobs and I get tired of people who look at me askance when I am asked what my husband does for a jobm and they discover he’s a federal worker.
Linda, it’s more the system that was setup by unions that we (or at least I) don’t care for, not the individual workers. The union leaders have a stranglehold on taxpayer dollars and created a system that is fiscally unsustainable. That’s why you don’t have those type of fed unions benes in private sector – not profitable for a firm.
Linda, my husband also is a federal employee and works extremely hard for the money he makes, earning every penny of it. I am not at all offended by this post, as it meticulously sets out the inequity and wastefulness with regard to federal employees who are receiving ridiculous amounts of pension money in light of the nature of their positions and related training and education. Please read Dr. Eowyn’s post understanding her point which is specifically set out and justified.
The Daily News here in New York is famous for these envy-inspiring stories. Everyone loves to read about someone who makes more money than they do to make their blood boil. Let’s remember that the Congress sets the laws, so if their pensions are too high—or too low, as in the case of the military—blame Congress first.
How do we root out the corruption at this point?
The silver lining may be in the disaster to come: IF the economy collapses, as most seem to think it will, then MAYBE it could bring down the government itself. If that were to happen, at least the military would go by protocols…..
It’s not so much about making more money as it is a union/government relationship that works together to redistribute tax dollars.
Why should a meter maid in Hermosa Beach be making almost $100k/yr (with benes) when all the education that is required is a HS diploma?
It’s an unsustainable racket that the private sector would never employ.