A higher retirement age.  A lower pension check when he or she reaches that age.  And a cap on the salary that can be used to calculate a pension.  Those are all changes in benefits that will affect public employees hired after January 1st.  And that's why a new state worker named Elizabeth, who declined to give her last name, says she's glad she started her job in 2012 - rather than 2013.

Elizabeth: "When I wasn't a state employee, I thought that the pension packages were way too generous.  Now that I am a state employee - and I went from contracting to state employee, so I went from making $75/hour down to making $35/hour.  And so I sure as heck feel like I have earned that pension in taking that cut."

Some of the changes will affect current employees too - like the requirement they pay half their pension costs.  The law is projected to save tens of billions of dollars over the next few decades.