Originally Posted by
shiznit
C2015, its coming soon. What is the value of a 15% (future 16-17% maybe?) DC do to a "restoration" equation... I'd like to hear no holds barred thoughts. I find it a very interesting topic because of the extremely different situations and perspectives that come from the seniority/age/merger spectrum.
For a pilot hired in the 07-present, Johnso/me/ACL it's probably way better than the old DB/nonqual plans.
For the 98-2002 hires, like Check and Gloopy is it marginally better depending on age, or still worse?
For 91-97 like DAL88 etc. (and gzsg?) it probably isn't even close enough or "just barely almost" when claim/note/equity/frozen/PBGC are factored in and you are a near perfect investor??
For 88-91 guys (Denny, Carl) is there not enough time to fix it no matter what the 401k percentage?
How do we quantify that, and since it will vary wildly depending on demographic what is the value towards a stance of "restoration"?
That's an excellent question.
From my perspective, I think our retirement is fine as is. With the company 15% contribution and claim/note/equity combined with the power of the BrokerageLink within our DPSP, I should have an income in retirement that is comparable if not more than what I would have had with the pension.
I think our focus should be on increasing our W2. Remember that the company contribution is a PERCENTAGE of whatever we make. Increase our PAY, and the increase to our retirement benefit takes care of itself.
In terms of restoration... yes, we did lose a lot of "value" with the loss of the pension. I have no problem with being compensated for that but prefer for that compensation to be in the form of additional pay.
I figure between the pay cuts and the loss of pension, I've probably contributed around $100K/year for the past 10 years to Delta's recovery from its financial crisis. That's $1 million. Pretty nice "contribution" huh? And I'm not suggesting I should be repaid for that. Just fix our contribution going forward. Make it right from this point forward and I'll call it even. I think that's more than reasonable.