In Quincy, from June 2003 through June 2008, the rate for police was 26 percent – 10 out of 39 officers retired on accidental disability. |
|||
Public employee pensions in Massachusetts increase by a maximum of 3 percent on the first $12,000 of a retirement allowance each year. That’s $360 per year. |
|||
Heart disease caused 45 percent of the deaths that occurred among U.S. firefighters while they are on duty between 1994 and 2004, according to a study from Harvard University. Heart disease caused 22 percent of the on-duty deaths among U.S. police officers during that same period. |
|||
Social Security paid disability benefits to more than 9 million people in 2008, about 90 percent of them were considered disabled workers. Mental disorders was the diagnosis for about a third of the people considered unable to work. |
|||
Massachusetts is one of the 15 states in which public employees don’t pay into Social Security and don’t collect it. People who contributed to Social Security while working in the private sector then went into the public sector, lose as much as 55 percent of their Social Security benefit if they are also collecting a public pension. |
|||
The average annual benefit to people collecting disability through Social Security was about $13,500 in 2008. |
|||
About 75 percent of U.S. police, firefighters and EMTs prehypertension or hypertension, according to a 2008 study published in the American Journal of Hypertension. The study attributed the numbers to several factors including the physical and emotional stresses of the job and obesity rates. |
|||
Depending on when they were hired, public sector employees in Massachusetts contribute between 5 and 12 percent of their pay into the local or state retirement system. Since 1979, public employees have contributed at least 7 percent plus 2 percent on any earnings over $30,000. Since 1996, they’ve contributed at least 9 percent plus 2 percent on any earnings over $30,000. |
|||
The number of private employers who match their employees’ contributions to 401(k) plans is shrinking. Those that still do typically contribute 50 cents for each dollar contributed up to the first 6 percent of an employee’s pay. |
|||
The average state retiree’s annual pension was $23,014 in January 2008. |
|||