Edna Love's 58 years as a nurse for Detroit's health department earned her a $2,000-a-month pension when she retired in 2011. That pales next to the $1 million she got from a separate city-sponsored savings plan where she put 5 percent of her pay year after year.

The annuity savings program within the Detroit General Retirement System created a class of privileged retirees in a city where pensions average about $19,000 a year, according to municipal records. The accounts got $756.2 million from the pension fund during 1985 through 2007 as extra interest, atop a guaranteed 7.9 percent backed by public money.

“Where else could you earn that kind of money today?” Love, 83, said in a telephone interview from a retirement home in Saline, Michigan. “At the time the city was doing well, we weren't worried about bankruptcy. It was a good place to work.”