Your money at work: Mercury News digs into a little-known pension perk

The Mercury News scores huge with a look at how lots of employees at Bay Area public entities are raking in extra cash from the “pension pickup,” a benefit that most taxpayers may not even know exists. That’s when taxpayers not only pick up the employer’s share of a worker’s pension contribution, but also the part that workers are supposed to pay for themselves. The Merc has a list of 51 public entities in the Bay Area and what taxpayers are forking out for the perk at each. At the top: BART, where the perk cost taxpayers more than $17 million last year alone.