> They have expensive health benefits
Hmm… maybe more expensive when compared to private tech industry jobs, but cheap compared to owning your own business.
> 13 days of PTO a year
Starts at 13 days for first 2 years, then is 20 days from 3-15, then 26 days from 15 on.
Plus medical leave.
Plus it’s usually easy to get people to donate leave in the event of a medical emergency.
> put a huge chunk of their paycheck (almost 5%) into a mandatory pension plan
Not mandatory at all. The government puts in 1% for folks automatically. They match up to 5% total.
> that consistently underperforms the market
It literally is the market. They have funds for S&P 500 and Dow total market, plus a few others, all at super low fees.
None of these funds are speculative other than the total market that the fund represents.