But the Federal Government, in 1983, eliminated the more lucrative Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) that provided 2% per year of average of the high-3 salary. (Actually - 1% per year for the first 5 years, then 2% thereafter, and minimum of 30 years, and minimum of age 55).
The new system - Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) gives only 1% per year ...minimum of 30 years, and minimum age that is 56 (and increasing). Again - average of high 3 years. And both FERS and CSRS don’t allow for including any overtime or other big increases to the salary.
Now - compare the Federal retirement system to those of many states or local governments, where the benefit might be as much as 3% per year, and based on the final year INCLUDING overtime snuck in the final year!
As noted elsewhere - many government employees require college degrees, etc. And rather than doing a sweeping generalization with a broad brush - it would be necessary to compare the salaries of engineers and computer scientists, etc. (which tend to be lower in the Federal Service ...but job stability is better) - or secretarial or other job classifications (which might have much better pay than in the private sector ...and also have better stability/benefits/retirement, etc.)
Military - a special type of Federal Service ....they deserve all the pay and benefits that they are currently getting!
CSRS is still around. Congress is still under that plan as well as those employees that didn’t switch.
Interesting point. CSRS employees DO NOT pay into Social Security, they pay into CSRS