MTA paying 6 figure salaries to 8000 people.

[ShawnD1]

Are those 40k jobs unionized? If so that explains it.
Besides, you have college grads forced to work at starbucks. Hire those guys for 5k more and fire the guy making 250k.

College grads work at starbucks because they're too lazy to get a real job.

$20/h is basically market price. You won't get any labor for much less than that. A lot of places around here work 50 or 60 hour weeks for those kinds of shit jobs, so it adds up quickly.
Using time and half, that works out to be 800 + 600 = 1400 per week.
That works out to be $72,800 per year to pay someone $20 per hour for 60 hour weeks.

 

[Bowfinger]

Are those 40k jobs unionized? If so that explains it.
Besides, you have college grads forced to work at starbucks. Hire those guys for 5k more and fire the guy making 250k.

Get a clue. The guy wasn't "making 250K." He got a one-time retirement payout after working who knows how many years. One-time, because of all the vacation and sick leave he DIDN'T take over his career.

You raging nutters need to get a grip. I agree, it sounds like the New York MTA needs to get its expenses under control. That puts it in the exact same boat as most large private sector corporations. The same applies for your moronic raging about the census training class. If you ever got out of Mommy's basement, you'd learn that this is a common business practice. Maybe it shouldn't be that way in a perfect world, but this isn't a perfect world.

When you nutters start raging about ordinary stuff like this, when you start shrieking how these things prove government is incompetent or corrupt, all you're doing is proving how ignorant and blindly partisan you are. It marks you as a clueless court jester that the world can rightly ignore ... once we're done pointing and laughing at you. If you want to be seen as something more than a clown, you must learn to think for yourself. Step away from the caffeine, get out of your echo chambers, learn a little something about the real world, start educating yourself with credible sources of news, and perhaps most of all, turn off your radios. They're not making you informed. They're making you stupid (though entertaining).

 

[Hacp]

College grads work at starbucks because they're too lazy to get a real job.

$20/h is basically market price. You won't get any labor for much less than that. A lot of places around here work 50 or 60 hour weeks for those kinds of shit jobs, so it adds up quickly.
Using time and half, that works out to be 800 + 600 = 1400 per week.
That works out to be $72,800 per year to pay someone $20 per hour for 60 hour weeks.

Where can I get one of these jobs? I can start in two days.

 

[ShawnD1]

Where can I get one of these jobs? I can start in two days.

painter
Salary: $22.00 Hourly for 44 hours per week, Medical Benefits, Dental Benefits, Disability Benefits, Life Insurance Benefits, Group Insurance Benefits, Vision Care Benefits
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Nisku, Alberta (8 vacancies )
2-3 years experienced required


construction labor
Salary: $19.98 Hourly for 40 hours per week
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Edmonton South, Alberta (7 vacancies )
no experience needed


roofer
Salary: $26.80 Hourly for 40 hours per week, Medical Benefits, Dental Benefits
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Spruce Grove, Alberta (4 vacancies )
7 months experience required (1 construction season)


sandblasting
Salary: $21.00 to $23.00 Hourly for 40 hours per week
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Edmonton North, Alberta (1 vacancy)
1 year experience required


construction
Salary: $19.98 Hourly for 44 hours per week, Medical Benefits
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Redwater, Alberta (20 vacancies )
1 year experience required

 

[Hacp]

painter
Salary: $22.00 Hourly for 44 hours per week, Medical Benefits, Dental Benefits, Disability Benefits, Life Insurance Benefits, Group Insurance Benefits, Vision Care Benefits
Anticipated Start Date: As soon as possible
Location: Nisku, Alberta (8 vacancies )
2-3 years experienced required

Why are you linking Canadian jobs? I can't work in Canada, I'm an American.

 

[Jhhnn]

No but I see people who work in offices posting here all day during work complaining about how lazy Union Workers are.

Ain't it the truth. And there's even more of it now that school's out for summer...

 

[nyker96]

first I agree MTA do need a shake up on their finance. These payouts are way too high for the services they provide. However, some of these high numbers are one time payment not salaries.

But If you think this only happens in unionized companies, wait until you see what bank management level's get for their bonuses even when they are not making money for the year. And we don't need to go to the recent CEO pay raises from banks that take bail out money.

I think the key here is that unionized or not, when a company is poorly managed, pays are out of sync with reality and financial trouble follows as in MTA or some of the Wall street banks.

 

[NesuD]

It's the carrying over of the unused vacation time throughout his career and then getting paid full rate at retirement that is screwed up. When I was in a union your unused vacation was paid to you at the end of each year and I was working under a General Motors contract. My current Job does not pay you for unused vacation time. It is rolled over to the next year but is capped at 160 hours. Basically if you don't use it you lose it. I am totally cool with that. A man should be able to use his vac time and his company should insist on it.

 

[ShawnD1]

Why are you linking Canadian jobs? I can't work in Canada, I'm an American.

Move to a wealthier country? The dumb ass working the drive through window at a Canadian McDonalds has better health benefits than most jobs you'll find in the US right now. (during a recession, you don't need to pay health benefits to new employees because people are desperate for work)

What city do you live in? I did a search in Detroit and some of these jobs are like $11/h for forklift operators. There's pretty much no reason not to be a crack dealer in that town when arguably dangerous jobs pay less than a McDonalds in Edmonton.
Seattle looks even worse. A fucking secretary job is asking for a 4 year education and 2 years of experience.

 

[Jhhnn]

Move to a wealthier country? The dumb ass working the drive through window at a Canadian McDonalds has better health benefits than most jobs you'll find in the US right now. (during a recession, you don't need to pay health benefits to new employees because people are desperate for work)

What city do you live in? I did a search in Detroit and some of these jobs are like $11/h for forklift operators. There's pretty much no reason not to be a crack dealer in that town when arguably dangerous jobs pay less than a McDonalds in Edmonton.
Seattle looks even worse. A fucking secretary job is asking for a 4 year education and 2 years of experience.

Hacp often advocates "letting" people work for $4/hr... he just hasn't figured out it'll be him....

Deregulate! Free Market! World Economy! Ebil Unions! Capitalism uber Alles!

 

[Exterous]

Oh and since the OP left this part out...

"overtime and retirement payouts appeared to account for most of the high salaries. "

"Mr. Raymond, the retired conductor, was the eighth-highest paid employee in the entire authority, ranking 16 spots higher than his railroad’s executive vice president. He earned $67,772 in base salary and $67,000 in overtime, and collected nearly $100,000 in unused sick days and vacation time upon retirement, railroad officials said."

What I would be curisous to know is how they structure their pensions. I know a lot of unions use an average of the total employee payout the last x number of years worked. If this is the case he just artificially increased his pension by quite a bit costing the taxpayers a lot of money

There is nothing illegal about it but it a huge loophole that is commonly exploited

 

[Danube]

Railroads are a racket like most union jobs in big cities. A few years back the New York Times found 95% of Long Island Railroad retirees were collecting disability when they retired. Unions = hordes of little piggies

A Disability Epidemic Among a Railroad’s Retirees
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/21lirr.html?_r=1

 

[rivan]

It sure does for most people! Who gets OT on a salary?

I do

....and no, I'm not in a union, nor do I work for the government.

 

[Vette73]

Railroads are a racket like most union jobs in big cities. A few years back the New York Times found 95% of Long Island Railroad retirees were collecting disability when they retired. Unions = hordes of little piggies

A Disability Epidemic Among a Railroad’s Retirees
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/nyregion/21lirr.html?_r=1

Hate to break up your anti-union BS. But disability is not controlled by the union, that is a Admin/MGT decision or courts on appeal. i.e. non union people.

 

[Jaskalas]

Why are you linking Canadian jobs? I can't work in Canada, I'm an American.

Sound like a ripe target for illegal immigration.

 

[fleshconsumed]

I don't see what the rage is all about. This is a one time retirement payout. This is not what these guys normally make year to year. Guy has $67K salary, which is not unreasonable for NY. $67K in overtime. $100K in unpaid sick and vacation days he did not take throughout his entire career. Are you saying people should not be paid overtime? He worked hard putting lots of overtime, he should be compensated for it. What's the problem? Or are you saying he should not be getting paid for all the sick and vacation days he did not take? The only unusual thing about them is that his contract allowed those to stack over the years as opposed to losing them at the end of every year. But all of these sick and vacation days are days that he earned with his hard work. The guy is simply getting back what he's owed. I see nothing wrong with this.

It is sort of funny that the same people who cry about upper class envy get their panties in a bunch when a middle class worker who makes his living through sweat and blood gets paid what he rightfully earned. Actually no, it's very disturbing and disgusting.

 

[mpo]

Are those 40k jobs unionized? If so that explains it.
Besides, you have college grads forced to work at starbucks. Hire those guys for 5k more and fire the guy making 250k.

Yes, that strategy worked so well for Circuit City, circa 2007.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/01/AR2007050101623.html

 

[theeedude]

Don't they cram as much OT into last year before retirement to get a bigger base for pension?

 

[Acanthus]

Don't most municipal MTAs run huge budget surpluses?

I know Chicago does.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

Lol @ op

 

[Danube]

Hate to break up your anti-union BS. But disability is not controlled by the union, that is a Admin/MGT decision or courts on appeal. i.e. non union people.

Oh yes the little choo choo workers are forced to get disability. People complain about politicians being corrupt but so is the average American these days.


"To understand what it’s like to work on the railroad — the Long Island Rail Road — a good place to start is the Sunken Meadow golf course, a rolling stretch of state-owned land on Long Island Sound.

During the workweek, it is not uncommon to find retired L.I.R.R. employees, sometimes dozens of them, golfing there. A few even walk the course. Yet this is not your typical retiree outing.

These golfers are considered disabled. At an age when most people still work, they get a pension and tens of thousands of dollars in annual disability payments — a sum roughly equal to the base salary of their old jobs. Even the golf is free, courtesy of New York State taxpayers."

 

[tk149]

It's the carrying over of the unused vacation time throughout his career and then getting paid full rate at retirement that is screwed up. When I was in a union your unused vacation was paid to you at the end of each year and I was working under a General Motors contract. My current Job does not pay you for unused vacation time. It is rolled over to the next year but is capped at 160 hours. Basically if you don't use it you lose it. I am totally cool with that. A man should be able to use his vac time and his company should insist on it.

Good point. Most companies that I have worked for (private sector) either do not allow vacation time carryover to the next year or have a maximum cap on it.

 

[Exterous]

Don't they cram as much OT into last year before retirement to get a bigger base for pension?

Yes

 

[tk149]

A train conductor doesn't quite drive the train.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conductor_(transportation)

A $67,000 base salary doesn't seem out of line with his responsibilities, especially if he's at the top rate. I would question why the guy is working 60-hour weeks for an entire year (assuming time and a half for overtime). While it might be cheaper to have employees work lots of overtime rather than hire more employees, safety concerns should trump that.

 

[alphatarget1]

Are you saying people should not be paid overtime? He worked hard putting lots of overtime, he should be compensated for it.

You are right. It's the management's problem that people get so much OT.

This doesn't happen very often in private employers because they have to control the costs, but not public agencies. AFAIK San Francisco is the same way.

Fire the management and privatize the MTA. I'm sure the bright minds in the private sector will find ways to make it run more efficient and maybe even profitable.