The average municipal retiree on the South Shore’s annual pension in 2008 was between $19,000 and $21,500. The average accidental disability retiree on the South Shore’s annual pension in 2009 was about $31,500. |
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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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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. |
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As of May, 319 of the 52,508 retired teachers statewide were on accidental disability, or 0.6 percent. |
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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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The average state retiree’s annual pension was $23,014 in January 2008. |
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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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From June 2003 through June 2008, the rate of accidental disability retirements among State Police was 27 percent, or 90 out of 335 retirements. |
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Massachusetts has a defined benefit retirement program for its municipal, county and state workers. Public employees who work 10 years or more are guaranteed a retirement allowance consisting of a pension and at least a portion of what they paid into the system over the years plus interest, the annuity. They also get lifetime health benefits. |
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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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