[Hugh R]

I'm no expert on compensation, but in the public sector, (at least here in CA, state employees get 14 paid holidays, the private sector usually give about 6-7. The California Highway Patrol gets (I think) 90 or 95% of full salary on retirement. I wouldn't be a CHP or any kind of cop, it is a dangerous job, but 95% of salary on retirement??? The private sector, if you have a pension at all, usually gives closer to 30-40%, State employees don't pay into Social Security there's about 13.5% (employer and employee contributions) of your money that you may actually get when you retire. Unlimited jury duty, I had to take a week of personal vacation with my last employer, and I had to eat it (5 days) when I worked for myself as a consultant. In government, you start with two weeks of vacation and can work up to eight weeks. I have an colleague in the City of Burbank whose going to retire with 30 years at age 51 with a pension of $10,000/month, that's $120,000 a year in pension. He'll also get lifetime medical insurance for free. My sister works for the Department of Energy and she became very, very sick in November and spent several months in the hospital. The DOE has a "donated sick time program and she had almost six months of sick time donated to her from other people in the DOE who had so much sick time accrued that they couldn't acure any more. So government work isn't all that bad.