The San Francisco Bay Area, of course, is already up there near the top of many lists: best beaches, VC funding and tech jobs, median price of a home, most eclectic food-truck scene.
It’s now hit another pinnacle: On the list of retired public employees in the CalPERS system with annual pensions of $100,000, Santa Clara County is No. 1, followed closely by the city of Oakland.
That’s according to a report released this week by Transparent California, part of a self-described “nonpartisan, non-profit think tank that promotes policy ideas consistent with the principles of limited government, individual liberty and free markets.”
Not only did the Bay Area dominate the top of the list, but the overall number of retired public workers in California earning pensions of more than $100,000 grew 63 percent since 2012, with almost 23,000 CalPERS retirees the payouts in 2016, according to the survey.
Joining first-place Santa Clara County, with 861 $100,000-plus pensioners, and second-place Oakland (523), the following Bay Area employers came in toward the top of the pack:
- City of Santa Clara: 240
- Berkeley: 162
- Stockton: 157
- Sunnyvale: 156
- Fremont: 155
- Hayward: 147
- Richmond: 141
- BART District: 133
- Alameda County Fire Department: 126
The average pension for a “full-career” CalPERS retiree was $66,400, the group reported.
A handful of public agencies, including the city of San Jose, run their own pension systems rather than participate in CalPERS, so they are not part of this list.
You can search the Transparent California pension database here.
The Press-Enterprise in Riverside contributed to this report.
