Federal civil servants getting too rich pensions courtesy of the taxpayer.

[rafterman]

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Ha ha ha...no way I don't believe it, civil servants, overpaid?

Federal pension subsidies too generous: CFIB
12:04 EST Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The federal government is too generous in subsidizing public service pensions and its time to start levelling the playing field with the private sector, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says.

“The federal government uses taxpayer dollars to ever-so-generously outmatch its employees' pension contributions,” the CFIB said Tuesday in a submission to the federal government's consultations on the retirement income system.

The report noted that federal civil servants contribute only 34 per cent of the cost of their pensions compared with much higher levels in many provincial and private-sector plans.

“Hard-working lower- and middle-class Canadians in the small business sector should not be subsidizing the generous retirements of public servants, most of whom do not even contribute anywhere near an equal share of their own retirement packages,” CFIB president Catherine Swift says in an accompanying news release.

One of the recommendations in the CFIB report is a gradual increase in the federal public sector pension contribution rate to 50 per cent for employees, “the ratio most commonly used at the provincial level.”

“This would not only act as a fairness measure, but it would also make the federal public sector pension system much more financially viable in the long term,” said the CFIB, which represents thousands of small- and medium-size businesses in Canada.

The CFIB report, called Securing the Future, highlights the inequities federation sees between public sector plans and those in the private sector and is based on the responses of 7,872 small- and medium-sized business owners.

According to the report, 79 per cent of the respondents indicated that they did not currently offer a retirement savings plan, such as RRSPs or a Registered Pension Plan.

“The main reason for not offering a plan is that they are too expensive,” it said.

“The second most common reason is that it is too complicated to administer. This suggests that, at a time when proposals for mandatory increases to payroll taxes such as CPP/QPP premiums and benefits are being put forth, many owners simply cannot afford such pension initiatives.”

Besides raising public sector contribution levels, the CFIB report recommends phasing out early retirement incentives in the public sector and making such plans adhere to the same rules and disclosure requirements as private-sector plans.

It also wants a halt to increases in mandatory Canada Pension Plan and Quebec Pension Plan contributions and for governments to offer incentives to increase private-sector pension coverage rather than mandating it.

“Prior to the adoption of any other changes to the retirement income system, governments should make finding ways to re-establish a level playing field between the public and private sector a top priority,” Swift said.

“Once that has been achieved, addressing other issues will be much easier and fairer,” she said.

 

[The Options Menu]

According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Ha ha ha...no way I don't believe it, civil servants, overpaid?

Hmm, let's see, a group of people who don't like to give benefits or pensions AND who are very much pro tax cut, who are somewhat worried about the necessity for tax increases, saying that public sector employees get too much when they retire. Yip, sounds fair and balanced to me. There could be nothing deeply cynical about that. Nope, not at all. That 70%(ish) of a civil servant's pension is enough to buy a hovercraft on the moon in the normal case.

 

[Regina]

Civil servants do get nice benefits but also lower pay than their private sector counterparts. Maybe this business organization should also ask the government to up the salaries of civil servants to match their private counterparts?

 

[The Options Menu]

I believe teachers are the richest of the bunch.

Teachers and nurses are pretty competitive. They are generally excluded from the 'civil service' as they are usually paid by a school board or some medical institution, who happens to get their money from the government.

 

[guelph]

don't forget Civil servants fund their own pensions. If I had put saved 6% of my wages from day 1, instead of fast and beautiful cars -- I might have a wealthy retirement too!

 

[Nickelodeon]

don't forget Civil servants fund their own pensions. If I had put saved 6% of my wages from day 1, instead of fast and beautiful cars -- I might have a wealthy retirement too!

To be clear....they fund maybe half of their pension....the rest is made up up the employer, the government, or the taxpayer.....whatever you want to call it.

You would need to save an average of $1.5 Million to get the equivalent retirement payout of a teacher or civil servance. Pretty hard to do for an average person.

This is why this is becoming a taxpayer issue....taxpayers who are relatively poorer than middle class teaches and civil servants are paying for their salaries, benefits and retirement.

It will take a worst case scenario like California where they are running out of state tax dollars before this gets addressed.

 

[hinz]

Hmm, let's see, a group of people who don't like to give benefits or pensions AND who are very much pro tax cut, who are somewhat worried about the necessity for tax increases, saying that public sector employees get too much when they retire. Yip, sounds fair and balanced to me. There could be nothing deeply cynical about that. Nope, not at all. That 70%(ish) of a civil servant's pension is enough to buy a hovercraft on the moon in the normal case.

Wait a min, are they the same group who lobby to the politicians to combat Visa and MasterCard encroachment to Interac turf, aka debit card and demand those politicians to legislate/pass law that allows them to have the option not to take those debit and credit cards payments while keeping the savings on fees all to themselves?

BTW, where's Slanconte 1978? Did he get sober now after seeing the professionals or simply stop waging a little Jihad on the civil servants here, like last month?

 

[auto doctor]

Biggest paycheck preks and retirement is fireman/police. Biggest burden to city costs.

 

[hinz]

Biggest paycheck preks and retirement is fireman/police. Biggest burden to city costs.

Having said that, IMHO many not all of them deserve the perks because of the job nature. That also include the paremedic and correctional service officers.

Other jobs in the governments, not so much and definitely absurd at TTC.

 

[rhuarc29]

Hmm, let's see, a group of people who don't like to give benefits or pensions AND who are very much pro tax cut, who are somewhat worried about the necessity for tax increases, saying that public sector employees get too much when they retire. Yip, sounds fair and balanced to me. There could be nothing deeply cynical about that. Nope, not at all. That 70%(ish) of a civil servant's pension is enough to buy a hovercraft on the moon in the normal case.

Their motives may be in the wrong, but their disgust isn't.

 

[auto doctor]

The thing is every town, city, urban area has fire and police but TTC is limited to one city. The impact fire and police have is big cost to the province and country overall. They need to find ways economize the service. Frist class constable to watch court doorways and transporting garbage from jail to court. those type of things.