Steve,

 "In 1979, the state approached the SEIU 503 state and higher ed bargaining team (which were combined until the legislature separated us in 1995) with a proposal that would change the landscape of our retirement benefit for the decades to follow. The state didn’t have the revenue on hand to negotiate the raises public workers needed to keep up with the inflation of the late 1970’s. To address the problem, the state proposed “picking up” state and higher ed workers’ mandatory 6 percent contribution to PERS. After discussing the issue with the broader membership, the bargaining team agreed. Many local governments followed suit in their collective bargaining agreements."

Today's Public employees still contribute to their retirement via the 6% employer pickup that is paid in lieu of an additional 6% in salaries.  The bulk of Public employees annual salaries are actually less than $50K, they are not greedy and often perform thankless jobs that benefit all of society.

Gladys