Taxpayers, younger workers suffer when pensioners go back on payroll

USA Today reports:

Consider this career choice faced by tens of thousands of teachers, police officers and other government workers across the USA: Work past the age when you can collect a guaranteed pension (often 50 or 55), or retire that year and come back to your old desk or one nearby to collect the pension and a crisp new paycheck to boot.

Collecting both checks is a no-brainer, and in most states it's also legal. This "double dipping" is financed by the 100 million private-sector workers who have no such option themselves, and in several states they've started expressing some well-placed anger.

In Florida, taxpayer outrage over elected officials who double dip led the Legislature in June to tighten laws for future retirees, and to release information on all 10,779 state and local government double dippers. Public ire and newspaper pressure also led Delaware to reveal 1,159 double dippers, and New York to reveal a partial list of more than 1,600.