Quote:
Originally Posted by Herkflyr
I don't want a DB plan. It is nothing more than a promise to pay that management will hold over our head, threatening to terminate if we don't play ball and agree to concessions.
Since they have already done that once, if we were to somehow miraculously get it restored, we all know that they would just go back to their old tactics again. I don't want our negotiators to waste one nanosecond or a spare breath trying to get a traditional DB plan back in our contract.
Now if you want to talk about increasing the company's DC contribution to approximate their cost of a restored DB plan...then I am all ears...
I agree 100%. I want the 'net worth' of my DB plan restored ($1.4 Million, 10 years ago) but I want it all in the bank of my choosing, IN MY NAME, not another hand job by the company.
Here's some quick math in public. 2004 757/767 Capt. rate was about $265/hr. x 1000hrs./yr (and that's only flying 82 hours a month)= $ 265,000 per year.
Our DB retirement was 60% Final Average Earnings, which for that number above is $159,000 per year, for the rest of your life. Let's say you retire at 65 and die at 85. 20 years of $159,000 = $3,180,000.
That was our retirement plan. 60% FAE for the rest of your life, and when you died, 50% of it went to your spouse until she died.
Now, how long is it going to take you to put that amount of money into your DC plan, at 15% of what ever you are making for your career?
Let's take that amount, and divide it by 30 years of service. Hired at 35, retire at 65. You would have to put away $106,000 PER YEAR, EVERY YEAR, to accumulate that much.
Think your measly little 15% per year is ever going to do that for you?
Now, let's say over the course of your 30 year career, from new hire pay to end rate, you averaged $200K/yr. and the company put 15% of that into your DC plan, or $30K per year...for 30 years. What did that cost the company?
$900,000 vs. the $3,180,000 under the old 60% FAE.
Yeah, that's why we have a DC plan.