Whenever I debate union officials, they insist that the average pension for public employees is low (usually less than $30,000 a year) but they conveniently ignore that the pension formulas have been increasing dramatically in recent years. In my old haunts of Orange County, the average pension was just below $30,000, but the pension for a recent retiree is around $66,000 a year. In California, the average pension for a highway patrol officer is in the 90s. It's not the average that matters so much as the guaranteed formula. The evidence of the increased problem comes from the increased numbers of retirees who are joining the ranks of the $100,000 Pension Club.
This is from today's Pasadena Star-News:
"A $100,000-a-year pension for a public employee used to be a benefit enjoyed by only a few top officials; now it is collected by one of every 50 pensioners. The number of public employees who have retired to collect pensions of more than $100,000 a year has quadrupled since 2005, according to the California Public Employees' Retirement System"
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