A $76,000 Monthly Pension: Why States and Cities Are Short on Cash
Re the ongoing debate here about government pay (and whether it&#x27;s high or low):<p>I&#x27;m not super familiar with city and state government jobs, but I do know something about military and federal compensation. They frequently pay less in salary, but have better benefits. This makes it an apples to oranges comparison when trying to talk about what they pay in comparison to non government jobs.<p>I was a military wife for a lot of years and I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to convey this. At one time, my army spouse was nominally making about half the income of someone else close to me, but take home pay for my spouse and this other person was nearly identical and I never spent a dime on doctor&#x27;s visits or prescription medication. The primary difference in our quality of life was that my husband&#x27;s income supported a family of four and this other individual was single and childless at the time.<p>So it gets really confusing because sometimes the take home pay for government jobs is less, but the total compensation package can be better. This means that two people arguing about it can both be right and unable to see the other point of view.