Posted in Pensions
Last updated 04/28/2011 at 8:59 a.m. PDT
Competing Plans Would Bring Big Changes to City's Finances and Employees
By
Elizabeth Lesly Stevens,
Tasneem Raja
on
April 26, 2011 - 8:43 p.m. PDT
The 26,000 current employees of the city and county of San Francisco are about to see big changes in their pay and benefits packages. Pension reformer Jeff Adachi is angling to put his new plan on the ballot; a group headed by financier Warren Hellman and leaders of the city's most powerful labor unions have recently released their own proposal; and City Hall is developing, under considerable secrecy, a plan of its own.
Mayor Ed Lee is focused on doing whatever it takes to forge a consensus among these dissimilar groups and putting a single reform measure on the November ballot. But the table below, a slightly edited version of a comparison City Hall distributed at a nonpublic meeting last week, shows that the three plans remain far apart on several key points.
| Current | Adachi | Hellman-Union Group | City Hall | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miscellaneous Contributions (nearly every city employee who is not a firefighter or police) | All workers pay 7.5% of salary excluding overtime. City pays remainder based on actuarial numbers, currently 13.56 percent in addition to an employee's pay. Next year, the city will pay 18.1% of payroll, peaking at a projected 28.9% in 2014 | Actives pay 7.5% of salary excluding overtime, plus variable rate depending on income. Total: Up to 16%. Hired after 1/1/2012 and actives who opt-in to the new pension plan pay 6% of salary excluding overtime, plus variable rate. Variable rates: If an employee earns . . . <$50k : 0% $50k to $59,999: 1-5% $60k to $69,999: 1.5-5.5% $70k to $79,999: 2-6% $80k to $89,999: 2.5-6.5% $90k to $99k: 3% to 7% $100k to $149,999: 3.5-7.5% $150k to $199,999: 4-8% $200k+: 4.5%-8.5% | 7.5% plus variable rate depending on City contributions (can go up or down). Total: Up to 11%. No additional contribution for employees making less than $50,000. Variable rates: City < 12.5%: Workers pay 40% of decrease up to -3.5%. City > 12.5%: Workers pay 40% of excess up to +3.5% | 7.5% plus variable rate depending on city contributions (can go up or down). Total: Up to 13%. No additional contributions for employees making less than $24 hourly, or about $50,000 annually. Variable rates: City 0%: -5.5% City 0-2.5%: -4.5% City 2.5- 5%: -3% City 5%-7.5%: -1.5% City 7.5-12.5%: No change City 12.5-17.5%: +1.5% City 17.5-22.5%: +3% City 22.5-27.5%: +4.5% City 27.5%++: +5.5% |
| Police and Firefighter Contributions | 7.5%. Hired after 7/1/2010: 9% | 10% of salary, plus variable rate depending on income. Total: Up to 18.5%. Hired after 1/1/2012 and actives who opt-in to the new pension plan pay 8% of salary excluding overtime, plus variable rate. City can not pay any part of the employee contribution without voter approval. In the past, the city has covered some unions' pension contributions while negotiating total pay packages. | 7.5% (or 9% if hired after 7/1/10) plus variable rate depending on City contributions (can go up or down). Total: up to 12.5%. No additional contributions for employees making <$50,000. Variable rates: City <12.5%: Workers pay 40% of decrease up to -3.5%. City >12.5%: Workers pay 40% of excess up to +3.5%. | 7.5% (or 9% if hired after 7/1/10), plus variable rate depending on City contributions (can go up or down). Total: Up to 14.5%. No additional contributions for employees making <$24/hr (amounts to $50,000/year). Variable rates: City 0%: -5.5% City 0-2.5%: -4.5% City 2.5-5%: -3% City 5-7.5%: -1.5% City 7.5-12.5%: No change City 12.5-17.5%: +1.5% City 17.5-22.5%: +3% City 22.5-27.5%: +4.5% City 27.5%++: +5.5% |
| Retiree Health Contributions | Hired after 1/10/2009: Workers pay max 2% of compensation. City pays max 1%. San Francisco faces a $4.4 billion unfunded liability to provide lifetime health coverage for retirees and their dependents. A trust fund to fund these costs was established in 2009 but contains only a few million dollars. Once the health care trust fund is fully funded, employees and the city will each contribute 1 percent of salary into the fund. | No change. | Starting in the 2014-2015 fiscal year, employees must contribute 0.5% of any wage increase they receive that is more than 2% of previous salary. The city will match the employee contribution. | All actives: FY 16-17: .5% FY17-18: 1% FY 18-19: 1.5% FY 19-20: 2% City contributions: FY 16-17: .25% FY17-18: .5% FY 18-19: .75% FY 19-20: 1% |
Elizabeth Lesly Stevens Senior writer Elizabeth Lesly Stevens writes primarily about business and finance. A recent transplant to San Francisco, she spent many years in New York as an editor and writer at Business Week, a media-business columnist ...
Tasneem Raja Tasneem Raja is The Bay Citizen's web producer. She earned a master's degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a pioneer student in the school's digital media program. She served ...
Not a member yet? Register Now
You must sign in to post a comment.