My wife is a teacher and certainly the pension plan is a good one, however they pay over $1000 a month into that plan. Base on just her contributions, if we had invested her contributions on our own her investments would be worth 1.3 million. Most employers have matching plans so we feel no guilt accepting that as an employer. Their salary is for 10 months, paid over 12 to help with budgeting (that started 15 or 20 years ago, they used to not get paid in the summer). They do not get paid for the summer holidays.  Finally, if its that great, go out and do it. Why sit around complaining about it instead of doing it?