The fight in Wisconsin is not unions versus big business. Nor is it the struggling masses versus the rich.
It is about financial sustainability not just of the state government but of the rank and file taxpayers.
What has gotten lost amid the name calling, politicians short-circuiting the democratic process by fleeing the state, and all of the hi-jinks are the hard, cold numbers.
For every $1 a school teacher and state employee receives in salary in Wisconsin, they receive 74.2 cents in benefits. Compare that to the private sector where a worker receives 24.3 cents to every $1 they earn.
The Milwaukee public schools finance manager noted the average salary of a teacher in that city is $56,000. Add benefits and the cost soars to $100,005. The average salary of a teacher in California is $59,825 with the typical district picking up 86 percent of benefits for teachers instead of 100 percent as in Wisconsin.
No one is going to debate the argument that Wisconsin unions have made that many irresponsible corporations did greedy and ethically questionable things that contributed to the weakened economy. But guess what? Almost all of us are victims to a degree as well as being partially culpable.
The real question now is how to get out of the mess and whether it is financially sustainable - or morally right - to protect public sector employees from the same amount of pain being inflicted on private sector workers.
The private sector long before the housing collapse had been shifting the rising cost of benefits to their employees. You’d be hard pressed to find many private sector workers who get 100 percent of their benefits paid or even 40 percent. That’s not the case in the public sector.
In California, a teacher with 35 years of service making $90,000 in their final year can retire at age 62 and reap a $75,000 annual pension or 84 percent of their salary. Try to match that in the private sector or with Social Security.
It is true that teachers in California don’t receive - or pay into - Social Security for their primary job of teaching. However they can - and many do - work summer jobs where they collect pay checks that make them eligible for Social Security. Essentially they have two government “pension plans” - their primary job and Social Security. Nothing wrong with that except it is something that doesn’t make life as bleak for many as unions like to make it seem.
By state law, every teacher in California contributes 8 percent of their salary to their retirement, the local school district adds 8.25 percent and the state tosses in 4 percent. It simply isn’t enough to keep the retirement system solvent in the long haul.
There is only one way the system can deliver on promises made and that is for a large uptick in contributions.
As a society we have obligations but there has to be some rationale applied.
No one is going to be thrilled about paying more - taxpayers or teachers.
And even if new teachers started contributing more that isn’t going to do the trick.
What needs to happen are for the teachers to match the taxpayers’ contribution of 12.5 percent and then see where that puts the retirement fund. After that if more money is needed, then the taxpayers and teachers need to match each other dollar for dollar just like the employer and employee does with Social Security.
It is still a much better deal than most of the private sector gets with separate retirement funds assuming their employer has one. Some firms will match a percentage of contributions to 401(k) plans. But few are 50-50 and all have a cap.
Promises were made and the courts have said you can’t take away legally agreed upon pension levels.
But the courts haven’t said anything about not making employees pay more.
For teachers to assume legal precedent will matter much if the system goes bankrupt and government is in the toilet and can’t pay, they just need to look at what happened to private sector pension plans where the courts made similar rulings only to see bankruptcy wipeout those legal edicts.
As for those of us who aren’t teachers, we have some responsibility in this mess as well because we kept electing the yahoos who acted irresponsible and kept promising the moon when it wasn’t attainable.
It is about financial sustainability not just of the state government but of the rank and file taxpayers.
What has gotten lost amid the name calling, politicians short-circuiting the democratic process by fleeing the state, and all of the hi-jinks are the hard, cold numbers.
For every $1 a school teacher and state employee receives in salary in Wisconsin, they receive 74.2 cents in benefits. Compare that to the private sector where a worker receives 24.3 cents to every $1 they earn.
The Milwaukee public schools finance manager noted the average salary of a teacher in that city is $56,000. Add benefits and the cost soars to $100,005. The average salary of a teacher in California is $59,825 with the typical district picking up 86 percent of benefits for teachers instead of 100 percent as in Wisconsin.
No one is going to debate the argument that Wisconsin unions have made that many irresponsible corporations did greedy and ethically questionable things that contributed to the weakened economy. But guess what? Almost all of us are victims to a degree as well as being partially culpable.
The real question now is how to get out of the mess and whether it is financially sustainable - or morally right - to protect public sector employees from the same amount of pain being inflicted on private sector workers.
The private sector long before the housing collapse had been shifting the rising cost of benefits to their employees. You’d be hard pressed to find many private sector workers who get 100 percent of their benefits paid or even 40 percent. That’s not the case in the public sector.
In California, a teacher with 35 years of service making $90,000 in their final year can retire at age 62 and reap a $75,000 annual pension or 84 percent of their salary. Try to match that in the private sector or with Social Security.
It is true that teachers in California don’t receive - or pay into - Social Security for their primary job of teaching. However they can - and many do - work summer jobs where they collect pay checks that make them eligible for Social Security. Essentially they have two government “pension plans” - their primary job and Social Security. Nothing wrong with that except it is something that doesn’t make life as bleak for many as unions like to make it seem.
By state law, every teacher in California contributes 8 percent of their salary to their retirement, the local school district adds 8.25 percent and the state tosses in 4 percent. It simply isn’t enough to keep the retirement system solvent in the long haul.
There is only one way the system can deliver on promises made and that is for a large uptick in contributions.
As a society we have obligations but there has to be some rationale applied.
No one is going to be thrilled about paying more - taxpayers or teachers.
And even if new teachers started contributing more that isn’t going to do the trick.
What needs to happen are for the teachers to match the taxpayers’ contribution of 12.5 percent and then see where that puts the retirement fund. After that if more money is needed, then the taxpayers and teachers need to match each other dollar for dollar just like the employer and employee does with Social Security.
It is still a much better deal than most of the private sector gets with separate retirement funds assuming their employer has one. Some firms will match a percentage of contributions to 401(k) plans. But few are 50-50 and all have a cap.
Promises were made and the courts have said you can’t take away legally agreed upon pension levels.
But the courts haven’t said anything about not making employees pay more.
For teachers to assume legal precedent will matter much if the system goes bankrupt and government is in the toilet and can’t pay, they just need to look at what happened to private sector pension plans where the courts made similar rulings only to see bankruptcy wipeout those legal edicts.
As for those of us who aren’t teachers, we have some responsibility in this mess as well because we kept electing the yahoos who acted irresponsible and kept promising the moon when it wasn’t attainable.
