IS A PENSION A “PERK” ?
My local newspaper had a bold headline today that read, “Teachers’ Perk Costing the District Millions”. The story went on to explain that unlike many districts, the teachers here contributed only a small amount of their pay towards their pension. In many districts teachers contribute around 10% of their pay to their pension fund.
There is a good reason why teachers in this district don’t contribute much to their pension fund. Several years ago, rather than give teachers a certain raise in pay, the school district opted to pay the teacher portion of the pension payment. The district concluded they would save more money by covering the teachers’ pension contribution instead of giving the teachers a raise.
I don’t understand how the pension payment can be considered a “perk”, since it was a substitute for a pay