You can't compare software developer salaries to typical wages in this country. Even software developer salaries are skewed by the Bay Area bubble. In many part

You can't compare software developer salaries to typical wages in this country. Even software developer salaries are skewed by the Bay Area bubble. In many parts of the country $90K would be a fine salary for a software guy. Your "different view" is from the public employee union, so of course they will have a different spin. I guess it's all down to what "average" is. The local newspaper puts it this way:[1] The average monthly benefit for public employees who retired in 2015 was $2,692, or about $32,300 annually. That includes all retires that year, whether they worked five years or 35. For career employees, with 30 years of service, the average monthly benefit was $3,771, or $45,252 annually. Not too many private sector people get a pension of $3,771 per month for 30 years of service. But that number includes everyone. I don't see any data just on "education", which is the category that initially started this subtopic. It's unfair to start pulling in off-the-wall stuff like Intel's "off-shore profits". That's old-school union thought. Thoroughly discredited. I remember very clearly when in NYC the World Journal Tribune[2] newspaper asked the unions for concessions so they could keep operating. To me the money quote was a union guy on TV who resisted this and said: "this is one of the richest firms in the world". There was a 140 day strike. Shortly thereafter the newspaper folded and everyone was out of a job. [1] https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/04/national_spotlight_cast_on_per.html https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/04/nation... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Journal_Tribune https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Journal_Tribune