That said, state pension contributions are a significantly greater part of state employees' compensation than 401k matches are for private employers, so it does merit something. Perhaps a phrasing like "Top Paid LA Lifeguard earns $270k plus a $60k pension benefit" or whatever would be most descriptive.
You can easily use that to compare apples-to-apples. And doing that this is still extreme.
Oh, you don't care about $10,000 in medical benefits because your spouse has them? Great, roll that into my base.
The only reason the author does it here is because the actual salary would draw traction as a headline, and his organization paid good money to get this editorial presented in Forbes.