And their pensions. Chicago schools are broke because of the high wages and pensions.
The retirement benefits here in NJ are the silent killer that those employees don’t even want discussed (until it is time to trim them). If these were part of the compensation discussion, and Jerseyans knew how much the true present value of these teachers’ pay was, there would be a riot (followed by more white people leaving NJ even faster than they are now).
That was a big issue in CA as well; how can our states attract businesses, taxpayers, or wealthy people when they know they are just buying shares in a MASSIVE IOU?