I brought this up mostly due to a conversation I had with a young County surveyor a few months back. He had no clue as to the difference between pubic and private pensions.
First we have to state that government employee union contracts are not negotiated like in the private sector. In the private sector negotiation is done between the union and business owners whose business profit margin is controlled by how much their clients are willing to pay and how much compensation their employees get. In the public sector there is no negotiation as the union presents their contract to elected persons that are owned by the unions. If these elected persons do not agree with the union demands then when this person comes up for reelection the union spends big bucks to try and keep that person from being reelected. In John Moorlachs case the Orange County employee unions spent over $3 million to try and prevent his reelection as County Supervisor, they were not successful.
For private workers Social Security and Medicare are forced taxes. Social Security started at 1% and is now 6.2% and Medicare is 1.45%, each for employee and employer for a total of 15.3% on wages up to $118,000.00,
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/ ... -announced. The maximum benefit from SS for someone retiring in 2016 is $2639/month less the ~$100/month Medicare premium for someone retiring at age 65, if at age 62 it's reduced to $2102/month.
https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/3 ... it-payable
Government employees, especially those in hazardous positions which includes landfill workers can get ~50% of their highest pay for life after 20 years and over 90% after 30 years plus no copay medical coverage. Hence the billions of dollars of unfunded liability.
Another factor is that if a private retirement fund becomes under funded the retirees can have their pensions reduced. The UPS drivers are now facing ~50% cuts in their pensions. Public sector retirees cannot have their pensions reduced. One State judge just ruled otherwise but I doubt his decision will hold up.
So, how does the under funded public sector cover their losses - more taxes. The private sector already pays all the salaries, benefits and pensions, buildings, etc for government employees. The elected have approved employee contracts with pie in the sky pensions that are not even close to being funded so, now they have created a "Private Employee Retirement" fund taxing private employees 3% (to start, they wanted 10%) for their retirement. The monies will be deposited into the CalPERS retirement fund and when this fails to cover the unfunded liability they will tell the private worker that his pension will be cut, maybe to zero, but the government employee pensions are guaranteed and legally cannot be reduced.
Some say bring the private sector up to the public sector. Due to the private sector having a profit and loss statement to contend with this is economically not possible. I started with Calif Div of Hwys then went to a local City, lots of paid days off but no money to enjoy them, so I joined the Surveyors union and my pay jumped ~25%. Now 40 years later and thanks to government employee unions the pay and benefits of the public sector are considerably higher than that in the private sector. These high pay and benefit packages are not a problem as to quote Gavin Newsom "California does not have a budget problem we have unlimited taxing power". What happens when the private sector jobs are "You want fries with that?"