When times are good, teachers are “overworked and underpaid”. Now that the baby boomers lost their retirements in the stock market and have to continue working, suddenly teacher pensions are a target. Suddenly we teachers have it way better than the rest of the country.
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A person in industry may have the opportunity to make $150,000 a year while he is working. A teacher? $50,000 per year. Does a pension of $40,000 per year for 25 retirement years equal the $100k the teacher missed out on each year for 30 years of his working life? That’s 3 million dollars less than a person in industry.
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The fight in Wisconsin is not about the unions, it’s about the pensions. That part I get, though I’m not sure why it’s the unions that are being targeted. The part I don’t get is how this relates to the following statistics…
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People working in industry make twice as much as teachers. If a person in industry makes $50,000 more per year than a teacher, that’s 1.5 million dollars more than what the teacher made. At this rate, a $40,000 per year pension would need 37.5 years to reach 1.5 million. To make back $3 million – the difference in amount over 30 years between $50,000 and $150,000 – it would take twice that time, or 75 years, or until the retiree was 135+ years old, for a pension to make up for the money he never made by deciding to be a teacher.
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30% of new teachers quit in 3 years. They will receive no pension.
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50% of teachers quit in 5 years. They will receive no pension.
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Teachers need to work at least 10 years to receive any sort of pension.
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Teachers need to work 35 years to receive an 80% pension.
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Teachers put 11% of their paycheck into the pension fund. Union dues are an expense on top of this.
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Everyone has the chance to be a teacher. Why not become one if the benefits are so good?
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If 50% of teachers quit in 5 years, how many are really making it to 35 years? 10%? And if they’ve contributed almost $200,000 to the pension fund in their teaching career, are they not deserved any of it back? How much are cities and towns really being taxed by teacher pensions?
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Speaking of pensions, Romney hates them. Here you can see if you are one of Romney’s chosen 53%.
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