Public workers deserve real financial security
Manhattan: The Tier 6 pension system has become an impediment to the recruitment and retention of public sector workers throughout our state. Public sector staffing shortages have reached crisis status, with employers at every level of government sounding the alarm that they can not recruit enough staff or encourage qualified individuals to stay in service. The state has lost nearly 17,000 employees due to attrition since 2021. And taxpayers are feeling the pain. As a result, according to New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli (photo), state government alone paid more than $1 billion in overtime costs in 2022.
Lest anyone think public employee pensions are breaking the bank, the average pension of state and local government employees outside of New York City is just over $27,000. Unless we make these jobs more attractive, we will continue to struggle to recruit and retain workers in our communities, and vital public services will become less reliable.
Not having enough workers in the public sector negatively impacts education, health care, transportation, sanitation, law enforcement, firefighters and workers at government agencies. These are vital public services that all New Yorkers from every corner of our state, regardless of income status, rely upon every day.
Legislators must fix Tier 6 to protect our public services and maintain a standard of living and quality of life that 20 million New Yorkers have rightfully come to expect and deserve. Mario Cilento
president, New York State AFL-CIO