Are pensions still an effective way to attract workers? I feel like there’ve been enough cases where workers get screwed out of them, that this isn’t much of an incentive. Similar to offering engineers equity in a startup.

Anything past the paycheck is a gamble.

They were for a substantial portion of time, such that today's pension obligations remain relevant.

In California, most cities are behind on funding pensions. There is a de facto assumption/delusion that there will be some large scale bailout at some point.