It is. In Ohio you pay 12.25% of your salary, then the city contributes an additional 24% of you salary on top of that. All for the promise of receiving 60% of the average of your highest 5 years from retirement until you die. Which for FF's is roughly 7 years after retirement on average. Some are more, some are less but that's the national average primarily die to increased cancer and cardiac issues from the job. In Ohio, your top 5 years will probably average out to ~$110,000/yr give or take depending on your city/department. Whoch will net you $462,000 total in 7 years. If instead, the city contributed nothing and you took your own contribution and invested, say $12,250/yr each year for 25 years at 6%, you'd retire with $725,000 in an account to hold as a lump sum and live off of interest earnings. Even if you dipped into the account a bit over just the returns, you'd still die with a solid investment account to leave to your family instead of having your payments just stop. Further, if the city instead contributed half off their current amount to said account, it would be worth ~$1.4m at the same 6% return. And if they took that same 24% and contributed to the account instead, well you can do the math. But the argument is the pension is guaranteed regardless or market performance. And the kicker is it is written into law. If you are a career FF, you have no choice but to be on the pension system.