To think public sector pensions should be slashed?

I need to recruit to my team and I’m embarrassed the salary is less than my teen gets at McDonald’s. The wage offered will have to increase in April as it’s below new min wage.

Exactly - you would have needed to work 62.5 years to accrue an annual pension of half your salary (ignoring final salary vs CARE here for a second), where as PP on 1/49 would only need to work 24.5 years to have an annual pension of half her salary.

The old standard was 1/60, so after 40 years of service you would have a pension equal to two thirds of your salary. Or 1/80 but with a lump sum of 3/80 also accruing.

I work for a government org and everyone, I mean everyone, would earn more money for the same job in the private sector. I don't know where you are getting your facts about CSs earning more that people in the private sector?

Lots of salaries in the public sector are very low compared to the private sector for what the people do.
Pension is one of the things that that make people stay.

We need public sector as much as we need private sector.

I think you are missing the point everyuone else is making - public sector pensions are no longer operating the way you seem to think they are, and public sector pay broadly has dropped - I retired two months ago and at that point my pay was, in real terms, 25% LESS than it was in 2010. And just one other point, yes, it is true that pension contributions come from a pot that originates with tax payers. Where do you think private pension contributions come from? They are paid for by the same people, except that the way the money comes in is called something different. If you didn't have a public sector (and in many cases now, despite having a public sector) you would be paying for all those things the public sector provides anyway.

I don't know why you think public sector workers have been getting pay rises in line with inflation. This is absolutely not true.

1/80th for ours

Really?
I started a civil service role in 1986, earning around £4000 pa.
1/49 of that is £81 going into my pension pot on a career average.
Most people in my sector earn minimum wage. If we get a pay rise, an overall percentage is agreed with the government and most of it allocated to pay the minimum wage increase. Since 2010 I’ve never had more than 2% rise but most years it’s been zero or half a percent.

DH in the private sector has been receiving at least 7% AND an annual bonus together with private health care, a car allowance and a fully paid for Christmas meal and summer party

Bog off. If you want a better pension then join the public sector, it’s what’s kept me in for 22 years.

YABVVVVVVU.

Pension is part of the overall pay packet when you take a job. What you're saying would either mean public sector workers would get a pay cut or the wage should rise to compensate to that of public sector. The second one wouldn't save money and the first one is insane given theyre already usually on less.
If you're oarticularly pressed about the few higher earners in the public sector, at least where I work empliyee contribution goes up as you go up the bands and the employer contribution goes down. Adds up to the same %.
I'm guessing you just don't like some people have a benefit you don't.

Is it? My first job was public sector and I got 1/25th

I don't know what public sector pensions you are looking at, but I ended up with about £90 a week to add to my state pension after retiring from a local authority job. So sorry to be causing public funds to be depleted.

This. When I moved to public sector 10 years ago I took a pay cut but still out earned my husband. I haven’t had a pay increase that matches inflation since and my husband now earns 3x my fte salary.
i have been through 2 restructures with another on the horizon. Maternity pay is 12 weeks at 50% before moving to statutory.
The only thing keeping me there is the flexible working and the pension benefits.

I wonder if there is an argument though for reducing pensions in the public sector but increasing wages by the same amount? This may make the sector more attractive to recruits who do tend to look more at the short term but come at a lower net cost as the income tax receipts would be higher.

It would however have the potential to be quite inflationary as more money would be injected into the local economy so would need to be managed carefully.

The only thing keeping me in my public sector job is the pension. Cut it and I will leave, as will many others. It’s also not as high as I think you think it is. Many people get good ones because they commit to 30-40 years whereas you move more in private sector.

The point of @Monwmum post is that private and public sector jobs are basically being paid the same now already

@Butthistimesticktoit there’s a massive shortage of planning lawyers too. If you are an experienced planning solicitor you aren’t going to work for £40,000.

My public sector salary is about 65% of what my private sector salary was ten years ago.

I had a final salary scheme in the private sector, defined benefit in the public sector.

I'm desperate to leave the public sector, as are many of my colleagues.

Workloads, culture, perks - all worse. Most of us at my SLT level have had enough of feeling undervalued and paid less than we are worth, most people I know at my level are looking for other positions.

The high % being paid into the schemes by LAs are to cover their liabilites, including aged liabilities for all of the people who are on the old final salary schemes.

YABU.

Can you produce figures for that?

Public sector jobs are on average higher qualified than private sector because the "unskilled" jobs are outsourced. Even so. the majority of public sector pensioners have pensions of less than £5000. Are you saying that most private sector pensions (excluding retail, hospitality, cleaners, other low paid jobs which don't exist in the public sector) are less than £2500?

Incidentally, when civil service pensions were "non contributory" 8% of salary was deducted from pay offers to compensate for the pension being "non-contributory".

Been a while since the last public sector bashing thread 🙄
Yes, it is not without its faults. However no some cushy bed of roses that some elements of govt and media make it out to be. General divide and conquer tactics.

I'm not sure what area your friends work in but for me I had some interviews last year with the private sector, the pay being offered to me was between 40-45k base salary plus commission whereas in the NHS I was on just over 28k at the time. That's a huge difference! If you slash pensions, there's barely any reason for us to stay in the NHS (particularly once you're done with needing maternity leave).

It’s incredibly hard to recruit to the public sector just now (I work in local government which admittedly is particularly bad). Pay is poor (a couple of pay rises recently does not make up for years of little or frequently no pay rises at all), and pensions have been eroded over years too. Public sector pensions are not an incentive to work in the public sector any more (yes, there are some roles/areas of work where it’s still good, but it’s a lot less common and is not an incentive if vacancies are anything to go by). I could earn more in the private sector, but my pension is a bit better than it would be there, so it generally evens out. If anything pensions across the board should be better, rather than any sort of race to the bottom for people who have worked hard for years, wherever that is. This attitude that the public sector across the board still has gold-plated pensions is long out-of-date (and has been for years, can’t believe this attitude is still out there).

£30k is low paid in Mumsnetworld.

You haven't been "slammed" - people have disagreed with you, making well-supported arguments.