I'm trying to clear up what I think is a huge misunderstanding of what the so-called public pensions actually are. I work for a state University in Illinois. We currently pay 8% of our salaries into the State University Retirement System INSTEAD OF PAYING INTO SOCIAL SECURITY. So our retirement system is our income insurance for our old age, just like Social Security is for the private sector.
Let me repeat this--we do not pay into Social Security, we instead pay into our retirement system at a higher rate I would point out, than those who are enrolled in Social Security. So to call it a pension system is a misnomer--it makes it sound like we are getting something above what most other workers get. This is not true. Our so-called pension system is our income insurance for our retirement, it is not some cushy freebie that we are trying to hold onto here. We were not given the choice between the state system or Social Security either. Nor were we given the leeway to not pay into it whenever we felt like spending our money elsewhere, unlike the legislature which has chronically underfunded the retirement systems.
I am not a teacher myself, but it is my understanding that this is the case for all Illinois teachers and Missouri teachers too. I would like to hear how it works in other states--is the Wisconsin state "pension" system similar? What about California? Is what the media keeps referring to as "pensions" actually retirement income insurance for these states as well? I admit I don't know much about how other states have organized retirement benefits for their employees. I hope to learn more in the comments.
If Congress was trying to mess with Social Security the way the state legislatures are trying to mess with the state retirement security systems they would not get away with it.