In today’s job market, ANY job is a good job.
These things are cyclical. When the private sector recovers, salaries and benefits will improve somewhat for government workers in order to compete with the private sector. But for the average government worker, they never were, and never will be competitive with private industry.
Right now, the private sector is doing very poorly so there in no competition.
Aside from those government employees in special categories: law enforcement, the teachers, and the politically connected, the average civil service employee probably makes around $30-40,000 per year with mediocre benefits. Its the sum total of all of this that adversely impacts the economy right now.
And why should there be ANY payout for accumulated sick leave? Its sick leave. If you are not sick, yo don’t get paid for it.
And the 20 and out rule for cops needs to end - except for cops who serve in HARA areas like Newark, Camden, etc.
There's usually a reduced payout, by formula according to years of service and age. Also, a cap on maximum hours allowed to accumulate from year to year. That's what happened in my case when I retired. I was losing over a hundred hours a year because I maxed out and rarely called in sick (allowed 13 sick days per year). I donated my time to other employees with severe illness who had depleted their sick time.