Among the main sources of increasing tension between private-sector and public-sector workers in this country are the plump, guaranteed pensions that many public-sector workers receive.
The frustration only increases when civil-servants “game the system” to further pad their pensions, in some cases allowing them to make more in retirement than even well-paid private-sector workers will earn in their lives.
There are few worse examples of public pensions run amok than in Yonkers, New York.
Yonkers Police and Fire personnel enjoy a peculiar pension system that is based on the total income received during the last year on the job.
To take advantage of this system, many workers pad their pay by working loosely affiliated second jobs — say, as a Con Ed flagman — that count as overtime.
The final year’s pay is limited to 20 percent more than the previous year, so it’s still a three-year process beefing up a pension, but that final kicker has put some officers into a new tax bracket.
All told, 130 former cops and firemen in Yonkers are earning six figure pensions….
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