Public sector pensions should be outlawed and replaced with a fully funded 401-K type plan.
The current system is insane.
How about replaced with nothing?
It used to be a principle of American government that one legislature could not bind a future legislature. (I.e. no payments could be promised beyond the end of the life of that legislature.)
Corporations are free to do what they want, but governments are not. Government payments should only be for current account goods and services, as it used to be.
ML/NJ
Love 401k's & like the idea of full matching funding, yes your employer could contribute up to the 19.5k, or some combo other than the 50 to 60% current match.
More importantly most options suck. Even when my better 1/2's employer had as their provider a large brokerage firm out of Boston who's logo is colored green, had 40 funds, but not all asset classes were covered. The new provider is worse, but I make it work.
Not investment advice, but I'd love to see a plan offering large, small, mid, value, blend & growth, bonds, & intl via ETF's. Given some of the large platforms have no trading commissions. Secondary, they need to offer Advisers. Schwab does it for $30 a month, Vanguard is 37 basis points of your assets, that is .037, do the math, that's $3700 / yr for a $1,000,000 401k for professional management, imho that's cheap $ for professional mgt of serious $. That's more reasonable than 1% a lot of firms charge. If employers want the best, darn it offer low cost funds and reasonably priced advice as a benefit or a partial benefit, imho....