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. |
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The average state retiree’s annual pension was $23,014 in January 2008. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The average annual benefit to people collecting disability through Social Security was about $13,500 in 2008. |
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Statewide in 2008, 12,933 of the 186,700 retired public employees, including city, town and state workers and teachers, received accidental disability benefits. That’s 6.9 percent. |
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Private sector employees contribute 6.2 percent of their gross pay to Social Security and their employers contribute another 6.2 percent. Self-employed workers contribute 12.4 percent. |
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In 1983, 62 percent of American workers were covered by a defined benefit retirement plan and 12 percent had defined contribution plans. By 2007, the numbers had flip- flopped, with 17 percent covered by defined benefit and 63 percent by defined contribution plans. |
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The average state worker pays 9 percent of his or her salary and the state kicks in more than $1 billion per year to pay for about 12 percent of public employee retirement benefits. The remainder is paid for with pension fund returns. |
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