That's the minimum. It goes up from there depending on your position. Typically, you could expect to make a lot, lot more than that, even for very short tenure: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/salaries_allowances/salary.htm
> which you can start collecting when you're 62 years old
...yes, but the point is that you only need to be employed for five years to be eligible for lifetime benefits. Work there for 5 years in your 20s and you're set.
...so?
This whole thread is in response to the claim that "I doubt there's even one pension plan, public or private, in the U.S., Europe, or Asia which [provides 100% of salary as a pension after working 25 years for eligiblity]".
So, having a pension which provides more than 100% of salary as pension after working only five years for eligibility is very relevant. That's far more generous even than what OP described.
Oh, and that income is tax-exempt in many places, to boot. It's an absurdly lavish benefit.
Government postings are even better.
The UN requires only five years of service before you're eligible for pension benefits, and you can still collect those on top of whatever pension your home country government gives you (which is common), or even while being employed in a different government posting.
It's not 100% of salary if you only stay 5 years, but it's pretty large - you can easily reach eligibility for a pension that's large enough to live on before you're 30, and then "double up" by taking other government postings whose pension eligibility is handled separately.