Throughout history there has always been a group of people who acted as scapegoats when circumstances were not the greatest. Since the beginning of time various groups of people were killed, misused, and mistreated. The Jewish people, Africans, and other various ethnic groups were taken advantage of. In today’s society though, it is not a racial or ethnic group, but those who protect, serve, and educate.
How many people personally know a police officer? A firefighter? A teacher? When you get right down to it, almost everyone’s life has been personally touched by one, or all three professionals. The men and women who are officers or firefighters and risk their lives on a regular basis are at risk of having their benefits reduced. The teachers in New Jersey, the men and women who are the greatest influence on our future- the children- are losing their jobs as well as the risk of having their benefits reduced.
Today, the current pension system is as follows: (Current employee of Passaic County, Corrections Officer)
1. Police and Firefighter’s pay eight and a half percent of their salary toward pension. Teacher’s pay five and a half percent of their salary towards theirs (proteacher.net).
2. After twenty years, police and firefighters are entitled to fifty percent of their previous years’ salary; after twenty-five years sixty-five percent is received, and after thirty years seventy percent is received.
3. If an officer or firefighter retires at twenty years, the employee has to pay towards medical insurance.
This is just a rudimentary overview of how the current pension system is carried out. For the
most part, a pension is based upon length of employment. Men and women who work in the public sector work dilig...
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...ople he cared about," Ray Coles, a Lakewood committeeman. "He was always investigating, questioning and trying to do a good job." (www.nj.com)
The fact that people want to reduce the New Jersey Firefighter, Police, and Teacher Pension’s makes little sense to me. The men and women who serve, protect, and educate, should be held in the highest regard in our state, yet they are the ones people are blaming for our current financial crisis. The salaries and benefits provided to the public sector employees is what enables the state to hire the most qualified people for these particular jobs. It is understandable that people need someone or something to blame for our current economic problems, but let’s not reduce the pensions of those who have paid in to them for many years. Police, firefighters and teachers deserve this for the amazing job they do on a daily basis.
Patrick, C 2004, The Guardian: Australia may hold key to pensions, 12 October 2004, retrieved 21 July 2006
San Diego has an unfunded pension liability of $2.1 billion. There was the choice of either cutting public goods and services or raises taxes in order to pay for them. There are three events that played a significant role in the pension crisis. The first of these being Proposition 98.
There are 108 sworn officers on the Appleton police department. They get paid $34,299 per year and the incremental increases at 6 months. The 1,2,3,4 and 5 years brings the top patrol officers pay to $41,963 per year (with a bachelors degree). They get paid at time and a half for any overtime hours they put in. 100% of an officers premium for medical and dental insurance are paid by the city. The more years they put in the more they get days off. After 1 year on the job they get 1 week, 2 years 2 weeks off, 8 years 3 weeks off, 412 years 4 weeks and 20 years 5 weeks off. They are allowed 12 days off for sick leave and 1 day is earned after a full month of service without calling in sick.
Why, at a time like this, would it be deemed appropriate to minimize the staff and shrink the budget of the fire service?
In my position as a pension benefit specialist with Towers Watson, I have gained invaluable experience working with plan administrators to process participant request, address inquiries, and resolve disputes. Through this experience I have learned a great deal about pension law, pension plan design, processes, and policies. This experience has allowed me to exercise my skills in time management in adhering to client service level agreements to ensure participant’s request are handled in a timely fashion. In addition have had the chance to hone my research and analytical skills in reviewing and relaying retirement plan information to participants.
providing retirement benefits to those who have reached the ages of sixty-two or age sixty-five,
A major reform, Assembly Bill 340, passed by Jerry Brown in 2012 ended in large-scale reforms. The new reform requires all new public employees to pay for at least 50 percent of their pensions. This takes the financial burden off of the taxpayer. Additionally, AB 340 increases the retirement age for new public workers and caps the salary amount that can go toward pensions.
Positive relationships are genuinely instituted between the police and the public for this purpose. The sometimes public tend to show their appreciation by providing officers with freebies or discounted merchandise (2). On the contrary police officers are already compensated by their employer for their labor. In addition, sometimes gratuities can even constitute as a large percentage of an officer’s income if obtained on a continual basis (7). Gratuities can be idealized as an initial corruptor because people will then expect to be treated differently (7). For example, a police officer was assigned to patrol the Central Business District (CBD) for seven days and has received a free meal for five of those days. On the sixth day the officer is moved to the French Quarter due to a local festival needing additional coverage. On the sixth day the restaurant in the CBD contacts the police department complaining that there is no security in the area nor have they seen the assigned police officer whom they had been supplying with free food. Sometimes gratuities can be given to promote police presence by advertising that the environment is safe, to deter problematic patrons and to ensure future cooperation (4). Police officers should not indulge in gratuities because they impede on the performance of an officer’s official responsibilities and morality within the law
Millions of free citizens around the world have reported misconduct by law enforcement officers. In the United States alone, 8,800 officers have been reported as using excessive force when performing their job (Packman). One of the major causes of excessive use of force by the police is anxiety and rage brought on by low compensation. The police is a force that is meant to protect the people against threats, not to be a threat. Police are not compensated enough for the dangerous job they dedicate themselves to perform each day. The Federal Government should provide a safe environment to properly maintain a lawful country. When police do not perform their job correctly, the environment is not safe. Therefore, the Federal Government needs to increase the funding for the police force to ensure a better, more efficient police force and strive to eliminate police misconduct. Police forces in the United States should receive additional federal funding; the additional funds will create a better economy, build a safer environment, and prevent abuse of the system by police.
In phone calls and angry letters to the Tallahassee Democrat and their legislators, many retirees mistakenly assumed that the jump in premiums was another mistake in the privatization of state personnel systems. And unlike almost all active employees, who fear losing their jobs if they speak out, retirees are not afraid to put their complaints on the record.
The push for Congress to pass legislation protecting the rights of employees and their retirement was inevitable. Retirement plans are extremely important for all working individuals. Having funds to keep or exceed ones current standard of living and to enjoy one’s life beyond expectations after retire...
At the lowest level of the ladder is the minimum 26 weeks of state funded benefits, directly followed by four additional tiers of insurance created by Congress. These tiers extend the available length of one’s enrollment to a whopping 79 weeks. And to top it all off, the federal government even offers extended benefits for a grand total of 99 weeks.
If any monetary reward is distributed it should come from the department and be available to all members. Moreover accepting undocumented gratuities can be misconstrued as bribery. Therefore any benefits that are received by a police officer should be outlined in their SOP, documented by a creditable establishment on their invoice, and should be consumables with a value no greater than $5.00. Still anything that can be converter into a monetary system should not be allowed. For example, officer ‘Y’ cant acquire cigarettes from the local store and resale them to public. Collecting benefits for protection teeters on the line of mafia and mercenaries. Police officers are paid government
Within the levels of government, state and local bear most of the costs of criminal justice in the united states (Bohm, Haley, 2014).Bohm and Haley(2014) also state that the percentage of the total budget spent on criminal justice by state and local is about 6.2% of the billions of dollars spent on criminal justice and civil justice. I don’t think that there should be more money spent on the criminal justice system process but I do think police officers should be paid more primarily in the state and local levels. They work awful hours, respond to calls that could be dangerous, see things that the average person doesn't see on the regular, and puts his life on the line for civilians. Their primary focus is to reduce or eliminate crime and keep
“The proportion of the elderly aged 65 and over has increased by 47% from 1974 to 2014, while the number of the elderly takes up almost 18% of the total population in 2014 in the UK” (ONS, 2015), it means that the ageing population may change the age structure of the UK population and the number of retired people might increase. Because of this, the demand of labor force might be also on the rise .The shortage of the labor force might make it difficult for the government to support funding for caring the elderly, such as retirement pension, health care and social care. Furthermore, Christensen et al. (2009) considers that there are few young people to support the rapid growth of older people because of the increase of the life