Local, city, State, and National governments, have a fiduciary duty to do what is right for the public, that is specifically their taxpayers, but have over time, devolved into simply taking care of their own, for rather that seeing their responsibility to serve their citizenry, instead they see their duty more as milking what they can for themselves, and thereby passing off huge taxpayer liabilities onto future generations. While just about everyone wants to make a good salary, along with a desire to see their future secure, in reality, with the exception of the few private sector jobs that have pensions, most private sector employees are not covered by pensions whatsoever, but instead must fund their own retirement through their contributions to a 401K as well as other similar retirement funds which may or may not be matched dollar by dollar, by their employer, along with a portion of their salary being mandated to be paid into the Social Security system, which, will in theory, help provide these retirees with income after age 65 or so, depending upon when they elect to receive their benefits. So, in short, private sector employees will receive some compensation from Social Security, which they have been compelled to be a part of, in which, as reported by the fool.com, for the average Social Security recipient at age 66 the monthly payment, "averaged $1,404."
On the other hand, pensions for those in the public sector, can reach up to 70% or more of their previous salary, payable for the rest of their life, with often times, health benefits, and depending upon the State, exclusion from even paying State income taxes. This means, when discussing how much a particular public sector employee makes, such as $50,000 per annum, that this amount only tells a partial bit of the story, for when you are also entitled to another $25,000 to $35,000 or more a year, depending upon your length of service, with a State such as Arizona, paying a wage replacement rate of 43% for those that have worked 20 years, while maxing out at 73.60% at 32 years, this equates to a very nicepension at age 65, the full retirement age, or, if elected, a smaller percentage if they decide to receive their retirement monies earlier.
The main difference between private sector employees v. public sector employees, is that the private sector employee has to, in most cases, fund their own retirement, with, if they are fortunate, a portion of that being matched by their employer, and even though they have paid into Social Security, those that are of the millennial generation, will be fortunate, to get anything other than their own contribution back plus a reasonable rate of return for their contribution, and in any event, will fall far short of the current public sector generous pensions. The public sector employee's pension is so generous because private sector companies have an obligation to keep their house in order, while public sector compensation packages, are voted upon, approved by, and granted by public servants or boards that want to take care of their own, and do not much care whether it is viable over the long term or not.
The solution to all of this public sector employee pension nonsense is to eliminate the pensions and replace them with comparable packages that are the equivalency of present day 401K plans as well as Social Security plans, with legislation passed which allows that equivalency. This might mean that public sector employees would need to be compensated at a present day higher rate, which would be a fairer way of having current taxpayers compensate current public sector employees, rather than burdening future generations with the bill and virtually receiving none of the corresponding service.