Let’s Talk About Pension’s
• New York’s’ pension fund has been providing benefits for public
employees for nearly 90 years. (source: NYS Comptroller)
• Unlike other states, New York’s pension fund is fully funded.
(source: NYS Comptroller)
• Over a 20 year period employers paid an overage of 2.86% of
payroll/year into the system. That is extent of the taxpayer burden.
• During this same period of time the employees have contributed
3% of their pay. We have paid a higher percentage of contribution
than our employers. That is not how this is supposed to work out.
• Two thirds of all state and local retirees are living on pensions of
less than $20,000 a year.(source: NYS Comptroller)
• The average CSEA retiree receives a pension of approximately
$14,000/year.
• The average state pension is $18,000/year.
• Elderly people are SIX times more likely to fall into poverty, if
they don’t have a pension. (source: National Institute on Retirement
security)
• Defined benefit pensions like ours save $7.4 billion in public
assistance spending. (source: National Institute on Retirement
Security)
• For every $1 of pension benefit paid to a retiree $1.41 is generated
in economic output from spending. (source: National Institute on
Retirement Security)
• This means NY’s public retirees create $24 billion in economic
activity for New York State.(source: National Institute on
Retirement Security)
•State and local gov’t employees earn an average of 11% and 12%
less, respectively, than comparable private sector employees.
•Defined benefit pension plans deliver the same retirement income
at 46% lower cost the an individual defined contribution (DC)
account (401k). source: National Institute on Retirement Security).
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CSEA Talking Points for Members
Wall Street Profits
• In New York State (and the rest of the nation) corporate profits are UP –
significantly.
• Average CEO Pay for S&P 500 companies was $9.25 million last year. (source:
AFL-CIO)
• Executive pay rose on average 6% in 2010. (source: Epoch Times)
• American business recorded the highest rate of profits since government began
keeping track over 60 years ago.(source: New York Times)
• As the bank foreclosures soared in 2009, the nation’s biggest banks awarded to
executives a record $145 billion in total compensation. (source: Wall Street Journal)
• The richest 1% is now raking in a bigger share of national income than at any
time since 1928, but paying at lower tax rate.(source; Robert Reich)
Why is it only middle-class workers—both in the public and the private sectors
– are being called upon to sacrifice?
New York Corporate/Business Welfare
• Corporate welfare increased by 33% from 2000 to 2010 – from $4 billion to $5.3
billion.
• From funding for Brownfield tax credits, retail enterprise credits, Empire Zone tax
credits, Investment tax credits.(source: Fiscal Policy institute)
• $650 million in property and sales tax breaks for business. (source: NYS AFL-
CIO)
• AMD and the Dubai owned Global Foundries received over $2 BILLION for New
York taxpayers to build a computer chip plane in Saratoga, New York.
State and Local Government Workforce
• New York State has fewer state employees per capita than 44 other states.
(source: PEF)
• Since 2008 New York State has reduced its state agency workforce by over
11,000. (PEF)
• State employee compensation is below the private sector when adjusted for
education and experience.(source: PEF)
• Compensation for both state and local government employees in New York is
below the national average for an American worker. (source: AFSCME’s Biennial
Member Survey, April 2110; Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2010 unemployment
report)
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