California is truly the land of prosperity (at least for the publicly employed).
My friends son recently got into the Indiana State Police.
36 grand plus a patrol car.
They had 3000 applicants for 72 openings.
Here in Washington State, the cops make all their salary on overtime. They are also allowed to estimate annual salaries for credit purposes based upon overtime earnings. I recently worked for a small city where the top 6 salaries were all paid out to police sargents at over $120k with a base salary of $65k.
Washington, unlike California recognized in the 70s what was going to happen when LEOFF employees would reach minimum retirement ages 50-55, and capped V & S max buyouts. However that only applied to all public employees hired after 1977. Public retirees in the late 80s & early 90s were cashing out 2000-4000 hours which also was calculated to boost pensions. Today retirees or anyone leaving public sector can only cash out 240 hours of vacation. Sick leaves are paid out at max of 25 percent for retirees. Some agencies don’t allow in sick leave cash out but most are allowing the 25 percent after 10 years service to encourage banking and stop abuse. None of this is counted toward retirement.