I should have been a police officer in NJ. $90k median salary.

[Mai72]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_police_salaries_rank_highes.html

**This is a 2010 article.**

They make $90k by the time they are in their mid-30's. They get to retire with full benefits and a healthy pension by the time they are in their late 40's.

If they retire in their mid-40's that means they are going to be collecting a nice healthy pension for another 30 years.

Thank god I'm leaving this state.

 

[Mai72]

The average school superintendent makes $135k a year

We have a superintendent for every district.

 

[nageov3t]

90k? what a chump.

the real trick is to also get a job as a city councilman or something so you can collect 2 paychecks and 2 pensions.

doesn't help that we've got an absolutely absurd number of towns, which all have their own police forces (iirc, NJ has just as many towns as the entire state of California)

there's a town next to my parents that's literally about 4 square blocks. setup a couple mirrors and one cop could monitor the entire city at once, but they've still got their own police force, school district, etc.

edit: it's 3 blocks x 5 blocks, about 0.1 sq/miles.

 

[Mai72]

90k? what a chump.

the real trick is to also get a job as a city councilman or something so you can collect 2 paychecks and 2 pensions.

doesn't help that we've got an absolutely absurd number of towns, which all have their own police forces (iirc, NJ has just as many towns as the entire state of California)

there's a town next to my parents that's literally about 4 square blocks. setup a couple mirrors and one cop could monitor the entire city at once, but they've still got their own police force, school district, etc.

edit: it's 3 blocks x 5 blocks, about 0.1 sq/miles.

This is in New Jersey? What do your parents pay in taxes per year?

There comes a time in someone's life when you just say "f*ck it" and move. If more people were proactive maybe taxes would be lower.

$90k is chump change? What planet do you live on? This is just the median. You have cops making over $120k. That's not chump change.

 

[mmntech]

The civil servants here are trying to claim that it's unfair to put them on a "sunshine list" (those making over $100k, there's a lot) because economics have changed. Meanwhile the median individual income in Canada is $30k. Of course the list doesn't include benefits or their gold plated pensions. Yet they're always so hard done by.

 

[Ns1]

The drawback? Living in NJ.

 

[Mai72]

The civil servants here are trying to claim that it's unfair to put them on a "sunshine list" (those making over $100k, there's a lot) because economics have changed. Meanwhile the median individual income in Canada is $30k. Of course the list doesn't include benefits or their gold plated pensions. Yet they're always so hard done by.

You have to wonder what's going to take place 10-20 years from now?

Are we heading to a revolution? A revolt?

 

[rh71]

NJ is high but so is LI and Westchester. My kids' kindergarten teachers make $124k and $125k respectively. The district median is $113k. Superintendents make over $250k and yes there are lots of them but that's really only 2-4 teachers' salaries. Cops are also above 6 figures and retire early. Teachers are the ones who have it made here though... working only 9 months and all that. Our property taxes are all above 10k, even for a 1300 sf ranch. Ours is 16k. It wouldn't bother me so much what they make except our taxes just keep going up and up and so do their step increases. This doesn't even address all the fat pensions of the retired that receive most of it. We'll likely leave after the kids are done.

Lastly, fvck unions.

 

[CLite]

90k? what a chump.

the real trick is to also get a job as a city councilman or something so you can collect 2 paychecks and 2 pensions.

doesn't help that we've got an absolutely absurd number of towns, which all have their own police forces (iirc, NJ has just as many towns as the entire state of California)

there's a town next to my parents that's literally about 4 square blocks. setup a couple mirrors and one cop could monitor the entire city at once, but they've still got their own police force, school district, etc.

edit: it's 3 blocks x 5 blocks, about 0.1 sq/miles.

Yeah - NJ needs to mega merge all the tiny towns and consolidate police/municipal forces. Unfortunately that will never happen.

The worst part about it is the rich crime free towns have the most high paying police jobs, while the police working their asses off in the crime ridden parts of NJ get the bottom end of the pay scale.

 

[BoomerD]

The drawback? Living in NJ.

No kidding. I don't think 90K would be enough to get me to spend a summer vacationing in Joisey...let alone moving there and becoming a cop.

 

[BladeVenom]

The drawback? Living in NJ.

But think of the drug money and bribes that you wouldn't get being an officer some place nicer.

 

[eldorado99]

The civil servants here are trying to claim that it's unfair to put them on a "sunshine list" (those making over $100k, there's a lot) because economics have changed. Meanwhile the median individual income in Canada is $30k. Of course the list doesn't include benefits or their gold plated pensions. Yet they're always so hard done by.

The vast vast VAST majority of public servants in Canada do NOT make over $100K a year even with benefits. This is just something the media likes to shove down the publics' throats because it is always a popular news story. Way to be a sheeple.

 

[Mai72]

NJ is high but so is LI and Westchester. My kids' kindergarten teachers make $124k and $125k respectively. The district median is $113k. Superintendents make over $250k and yes there are lots of them but that's really only 2-4 teachers' salaries. Cops are also above 6 figures and retire early. Teachers are the ones who have it made here though... working only 9 months and all that. Our property taxes are all above 10k, even for a 1300 sf ranch. Ours is 16k. It wouldn't bother me so much what they make except our taxes just keep going up and up and so do their step increases. This doesn't even address all the fat pensions of the retired that receive most of it. We'll likely leave after the kids are done.

Lastly, fvck unions.

Jesus, you guys are screwed.

 

[momeNt]

You guys act as if public service is something easy.

Most have skills that would get them twice their public salaries in the private sector, but because of their strong community values and love of civic service, they take much less than they can make.

 

[Mixolydian]

Lastly, fvck politicians.

ftfy.

 

[Ns1]

You guys act as if public service is something easy.

Most have skills that would get them twice their public salaries in the private sector, but because of their strong community values and love of civic service, they take much less than they can make.

What skills might that be? Honest question.

 

[Insomniator]

I really don't think they make that much... I really hope they don't.

But if they do, thats a lot of money for sitting in wawa parking lots, yelling at teenagers, and pulling people over for expired inspection.

The cops in camden and newark should make 90. The ones in 99% rich white towns with next to no crime should make half that.

 

[Markbnj]

You guys act as if public service is something easy.

Most have skills that would get them twice their public salaries in the private sector, but because of their strong community values and love of civic service, they take much less than they can make.

Maybe, but in the private sector they would get crappy healthcare, half the time off, and be subject to the whims of business fortune like the rest of us.

And please, calling it "public service" is something only the people who have those jobs do. It was never a sacrifice. It was always a secure way of earning a living that a certain type of person found very attractive.

 

[wabbitslayer]

I would think the drawback would be not knowing when some idiot that is drunk or on meth/coke is going to shoot at you, swing at you, pee all over themselves and you as you are putting them in the back of your car.

90k? For every one of the sensationalized stories of bad cops shooting or beating up someone, there's a hundred more of the guys in blue doing a good job, or at least trying to. I tend to think better pay would yield better job applicants and therefore better cops.

In a society where guys make millions a year based on their ability to throw/hit/run with a little friggin ball on Sunday afternoons and others make millions trying to figure out how to cut low level employee benefits in order to maximize the wealth of the corner office holders at corporate HQ, paying a cop $90k a year doesn't sound bad at all.

 

[Jimzz]

NJ is high but so is LI and Westchester. My kids' kindergarten teachers make $124k and $125k respectively. The district median is $113k. Superintendents make over $250k and yes there are lots of them but that's really only 2-4 teachers' salaries. Cops are also above 6 figures and retire early. Teachers are the ones who have it made here though... working only 9 months and all that. Our property taxes are all above 10k, even for a 1300 sf ranch. Ours is 16k. It wouldn't bother me so much what they make except our taxes just keep going up and up and so do their step increases. This doesn't even address all the fat pensions of the retired that receive most of it. We'll likely leave after the kids are done.

Lastly, fvck unions.

Its not the unions, no matter what the right wing news drivel says. A union can ask all they want, they do not make the rules.

If you think its wrong then run for office or vote for people that will change it. The voters put politicians in charge that have the authority to set pay and benefits.

 

[Insomniator]

You guys act as if public service is something easy.

Most have skills that would get them twice their public salaries in the private sector, but because of their strong community values and love of civic service, they take much less than they can make.

:biggrin:

 

[Pacfanweb]

The drawback? Living in NJ.

Yep, you SHOULD make more for having to live there.

Reason public servants make so much up north? Taxes. Cost of living is FAR higher than in the South.

So people are selling their houses and moving South. They buy a bigger house for less money here.

Trouble is, they are now here in large enough numbers, and the idiots are voting for the same type of tax-and-spend candidates that they voted for back home....so cost of living is going up here, now. They don't seem to realize that all the different services they had back home were what drove up the cost of living.

 

[Pacfanweb]

What skills might that be? Honest question.

I think that was a troll post. He can't possibly believe that.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

ALL government workers are overpaid and rip off the taxpayer. they should chop all government pay by 2/3, i bet most of those fuggers would still stay because they wouldnt be able to get another job

 

[pauldun170]

NJ is high but so is LI and Westchester. My kids' kindergarten teachers make $124k and $125k respectively. The district median is $113k. Superintendents make over $250k and yes there are lots of them but that's really only 2-4 teachers' salaries. Cops are also above 6 figures and retire early. Teachers are the ones who have it made here though... working only 9 months and all that. Our property taxes are all above 10k, even for a 1300 sf ranch. Ours is 16k. It wouldn't bother me so much what they make except our taxes just keep going up and up and so do their step increases. This doesn't even address all the fat pensions of the retired that receive most of it. We'll likely leave after the kids are done.

Lastly, fvck unions.

I live on LI as well.
What district are you in where a kindergarten teacher make 6 figures?
Only possible scenario is old coot with 2000 college credits and 70 years of service.
I think the average is MUCH less.

As for the cops, I know a few.
The cost of living around here is high and I think that public servants should be able to afford living in the area they serve. Our county cops should be able to afford a house in the county and raise a family.
I just think something is wrong when they have the NICEST house and they are retiring comfortably in their mid 40's.
I think something is especially wrong when they are bunch of entitlement driven whiners working a relatively easy, low crime area.