Fed Worker Pension, Pay Concerns – ryan

In April, I Wrote About a Federal Worker Who was Five Months Shy of Eligibility for a full pension of $ 6,000 a month when she fired in the doge cuts.

I Received Nearly 100 Emails from Readers, and Almost All Expressed How Little Sympathy They Felt.

“Welcome to the Real World,” Several Said.

“Go Get A Job and Work Till you’re Dead like the rest of us,” Another wrote.

“National Steel Went Bankrupt. Us Steel Bought say for Nothing. Thousands Lost What Was Promised to Us,” Another Said.

Of Course, Not Everyone Feels This Way. I to get more emails from People with negative respects to stories than from those who aren’thered. But i was Curious to Learn More, so spoke with Six of the People who were Critical of the Federal Worker.

They were Over 60 and Lived in California, Nevada, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Four were retried, and most live on fixed incomes much Lower than the pension the subject of my Story has received. They all said they didn’t want their tax to pay for High Salaries and Geneerous Benefits for Certain Government Employees when private workers aren’t afforded the Same Rewards. They Also Questioned Whether Some Government Jobs Were Needed at All. All but one voted for now-president Donald Trump in this past election.

While News of Federal Firings Has Slowed Down, Doge’s Purging of the Government Workforce is not over. The Cuts Happening Now Are More Permanent and Methodical, and the Trump Administration is Planning to Reclasify Some Workers to Make Easier to Fire. The Six People I Spoke with Said What DOGE is doing to the federal workforce is just for the matter in the private sector. Several Had Lost Their Pensions Because Their Employers Went Bankrupt or Stopped Paying Into and Switched to the Less-Generous 401 (K) Model.

Leslie Swor, 70, Retired Seven Years Ago after Career in the Coast Guard, an Independent Securities Regulator Now Known as Finra, and Then Oracle. To supplement Her income, swore works a contract job as a school Crossing Guard in East Los Angeles, California. She Told with Public Sector Workers Shouldn’t Expect to Have a “Hefty” Pension for Life. AFTER ALL, PRIVATE SECTOR WORKERS DON’T TAKE THAT A GIVE.

Swor Said She Had “Fabulous Benefits and Annual Raises and Bonuses” Early in Her Career in The Private Sector. In 2007, when she became an administrative assistant at Oracle, Those Benefits were no Longer the Norm.

“Life for US Out here in the private sector, in my experience, saemed to get much worse,” Swor Said.

They Think Federal Salaries and Benefits Are Overly Generous Compared With The Private Sector

The Readers I spoke with us surprised that the subject of my story, Katherine Ann Reniers, was Making so much Money in a government job, in adding to geneerous benefits, and said the private had not been as cushy.

Reniers, A Fired US Agency for International Development Worker, Earned a Base Salary of $ 177,000. In addition to a pension, she and other federal workers have the thrift savings plan, which is simillar to a 401 (k). In that plan, the government matches a Small Percentage of an Employe’s Contrbuctions. Reniers Wauld Have Qualified for Federal Health Insurance for Life if She Had Hit Two Decades of Service.

Nearly 20 Years Ago, Reniers Took a Pay Cut to Leave the Private Sector, Dropping from $ 150,000 to $ 54,000 in Annual Pay to Get on a Path She Saw as Stubler for Her Family in the Long Run. At first, she moved every two to four years, innings to the country has HAD High Rates of Violent Crime and Lacked Decent Healthcare. In 2010, she was pregnant when she was assured to hait after a devastating earthquake. Reniers, Now 53, Rose Through the Ranks to Become A USAID DIVISION CHIEF AND LIVES IN Maryland.

Swor Said Her Perception of Federal Employees was that they have traded Higher Private Sector Salaries for More Stability and Better Benefits. That’s far -so for federal workers with a bachelor’s Degree or Above. A CONGRESSIONAL Budget Office Analysis of Fiscal 2022 DATA FEDERAL WORKERS WHO GREDUATED FROM HAD LOWER SALARIES BUTTER BENEFITS – Including Health Insurance, Retirement, and Paid Leave – Than Their Counterparts in Private Sector. Public Sector Jobs Also tig to be held by White-Collar, Highly Educated Professionals. Reniers, for Example, Has a Master’s Degree, Speaks Four Languages, and Has a Lot of Work Experience in Africa and Europe.

For Workers with Only A High School Education, The Federal Government, on Average, Offers Better Pay and Benefits Than The Private Sector.

Mike Knouse, A 62-YEAR-OLD Landscaper from Maryland, was also frustrated by what he viewed as geneerous public sector Compensation. He’s workhed for 40 years at private companies but said he never had a pension or more than two weeks of paid vacation. His Current Employer DOESN’T OFFER A 401 (K).

Salaries and Benefits for 2 Million Federal Employees, Including Military and Civilian Personnel, Accounted for About 4.3% of the Nation’s $ 6.8 TRAKING IN ANNUAL SPECTING IN FISCAL 2024. Accounting to the CBO, Social Safety Net Social Social Security, Medicare, Nutritance, and Benefits for Veterans and Military Personnel Account for More than 50% of the US Budget.

IF DOGE DOES FIND SAVINGS, KNOUSE WOULD LIKE TO SEE LOWER TAXES, BETTER HEARTHCARE FOR RETREIES, AND MO SOCIAL SECURITY.

“I’m hoping that he couuld Also the Pay Scheale for Federal Employees, or any futures Hiring by the Federal Government, Because Its Got to Balance Out,” Knouse Said, Reference to Trump and the Doge Office Cuts.

Some Questioned Whether Tax Money Should Pay for Pensions

In General, Full-Time Federal Workers Can Start Receiving their Full Pension Oncu the Hit the Retirement Age of 62. Those Who Workhed Two Decades or More For the Federal Government Can Retire Earlier. Foreign Service Officers at USAID and the State Department – As Well As Law Enforcement Officers, Firefighters, and Air Traffic Controllers – Can Retire AFTER 20 Years and Qualify for Pension Pension AFTING THAT ANNIVERSARY.

I Asked The People I Interviewed How they Viewed Federal Pensions and Whether they wished the private sector still offened. These “defined benef plans,” Which guarante a Certain Payout, have Become Less Common in the Private Sector as Employers have adopted more “Defined Contribution Plass” Like 401 (K) S or Employe Stock Ownership, Which Offer Varying Payouts Based on the Market.

SWOR, FOR HER Part, WAS OK WITH PPOESTS BEING ELEMATED IN BOT SECTORS.

“Think People Might be Waking Up That Is Our Money,” Swor Said of Federal Pensions. “Why Not JUST JUST Social Security Receive?”

Richard Myers, A 67-YEAR-OLD Retire Commercial Real Estate Developer in Nevada, Felt Conflicted About The Federal Pension System. On one hand, he undertood that the goodnment has to provides good benefs to the talent. But it seamed overly cusy to him that Certain workers could retire with a full retirement – Maybe at 45 if they entered the government young – and go on to have another career.

Ultimately, he said he undertood a pension like this for military or law enforcement officers, as well as someone like Reniers, who has had to mov around a lotseas at the Government’s Request.

“After 20 years, you’ve probably paid your dues,” Myers Said. “But someone with a desk jab in Washington, DC?”

He Said He Joked With His Friends that there is a revolution in the us – not rich versus poor but public verse Versus private sector, Because workers in the Latter Category ARIVING AGE AGE WILL BE SUCKING, “How

They As asked Whether the US Needs All the Current Government Jobs

While Most People I Spoke with Didn’t Completely Agree with the Way the Elon Musk-Linked Doge Office was implementing the cuts, the pursuit of finding and eliminating government were appealed to say. SO DID Trump’s “America First” Mantra, which partly explained Their skepticism of USAID.

Cynthia Bean, A 64-YEAR-Old from Indiana, Said She Never Heard of the Agency and Didn’t Understand Why “Billions of Our Tax Are Being Funneled Through it to Nonprofits in Other Countries.”

Bean, who own a real estate title Business for 20 years, Said She Voted for Trump Becuses He Talked About Running the US Government Like a Business.

She sidn’t have had a problem Helping other Countries Prevent and TREAT HIV/AIDS OTHER DISEASES. People Also Need Water and Power, she added. Some 83% of USAID Programs, Including THOSE THAT INVESTED IN DISEASE PREVENTION AND CLEAN WATER, have been cut by the Trump administration.

Joyce Weaver, an 80-YEAR-Old Senior Home Care Aide in Pennsylvania and A Democrat who voted for THEN-Vice President Kamala Harris, Said the Government May Be Overseing on Millions of Federal Employees.

“What Trump is Doing Needs to Be Done But Not With So Much Pain for SO MANY AND SO MUCH DANGER FOR THE WHOE COUNTRY,” Weaver Said.

Trump’s Criticism of Federal Workers, Including Calling Therm “Croked” and Dishonest, “and Musk’s Suggestion That Some Government Role” Fake Jobs “resonated with the People I interview.

“We will Need Government Jobs, and i don’t care what anyone Says, they will deserve a pension,” Paul Alto, 61, who lives in cleveland, said. “But i Think there are a lot of jobs that we were made up.”

As for Reniers, she recogenized she’s more privileged than but said that not all due to government pay and benefits. She has homes in Maryland and Belgium Because of Her inheritance. To address that inequality, she said, Americans Should Support Taxing the Rich.

“Why aren’t Americans Fighting for Pensions at their Own Companies, as Opposed to Saying Federal Workers Like with Shouldn’t Get Pension?” Said Reniers. “In america, so many People are working so hard for Low wages.