BigMcK wrote:If the city factors earnings as a factor of pension benefits, the more you make in total, boosts future pension earnings. Locally, it is not uncommon for a senior officer to pull as much OT as possible for the final three years before retiring, thus showing a six-figure salary as the baseline for pension benefits. Doing this, your base salary may for example be $80k, but if you add another $80K in OT, future earning are based on $160k, and you could receive a pension check equal to your base salary.
I know that's how the PA State Police operate, or at least they did recently. I had several friends on the police force and when a guy was getting close to retirement, he would ask to be transferred to night shift, work all the holidays & weekends, work as much OT as possible, etc. all to get his income as high as possible and raise his pensions.