years of employment. Under the previous contract, workers contribute 2% to their pension plan. The pension benefit is not insignificant because it is estimated to cost 25% of salary over the entire 25-year period to fund a pension benefit of half the salary at age 55 for someone who starts employment at age 30. While this estimate is based on a 5% interest rate for discounting present values, a 3.5% annual salary growth rate and mortality according to the Annuity 2000 Merged Gender Mod 1 Table with ages set back 2.0 years. The key point to use the same assumptions to compare the annual yearly cost as a percent of salary for a half pay pension for someone starting at age 30 and retiring at age 62. The additional seven-year wait would drive the cost down to under 17% of salary annual cost. In essence, the MTA's proposal was a greater than 8% salary cut across the board. Using a slightly worse mortality table, the effective salary cut is still within the 7% to 6% salary cut range in terms of value given up. By not accepting the MTA pension offer, Local 100 of the TWU was not forced to a cut. Citing the rising cost of health care, the MTA wanted new employees to contribute 1% of their salary to pay for health insurance. Transit workers currently do not pay for health insurance. TWU workers also raised complaints about working conditions, including hazards such as smoke, dangerous chemicals and extreme temperatures, abuse from supervisors, verbal or physical threat from passengers, and inability to access restroom facilities on the bus and subway. Just before the contract ended, the MTA offered a 3.5% per year raise and no change in the retirement age, with the caveat that new transit workers pay 6% of their wages into the pension fund, up from the 2% that current workers pay. The offer was rejected, and a strike declared. Combined, the pension and health care reforms the MTA sought would cost about US$30 million over the span of the three-year contract. Critics lambasted both the MTA and TWU for allowing a strike to occur over such a relatively small sum. However, the pension costs would balloon to US$160 million in the first 10 years, and US$80 million per year after 20 years. The MTA said that its reluctance to give in to the TWU on