re: When do you value pension benefit vs pay?

At your death, pension plans are no longer owned by your estate (surviving spouse is different). Where a retirement plan is your own to pass on.

A huge portion of pension plan employees feel obligated to stay at their current employer while giving up potential higher income or happiness because they don’t want to leave their current employer and lose the pension.

I am by no means against a pension, but there’s a lot of factors to consider.