OPINION:
In a most revealing and damning series on the Washington-area Metro system, I was stunned to read the following in The Washington Times: “Overtime allows workers to dramatically increase the pension they collect upon retirement. The pension is based on an average of the worker’s highest-earning years” (“Even with big salaries, Metro can’t fill its jobs,” Web, March 27).
Overtime pay in the federal civil service system is not included when computing the pension. Only the base pay of the highest three years is used to calculate retirement pay. One of the reasons New York went broke in the 1980s is because pensions were based on the highest-earning year, including overtime. Employees were allowed to work hundreds of hours of overtime in the last year of work in order to boost their pension calculations. This is criminal abuse of the taxpayer funds.
Overtime should never be included in pension calculations. The opportunity for abuse is obvious.
JOSEPH R. FARRELL
Alexandria
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