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MTA paying 6 figure salaries to 8000 people.

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I wonder how many people here typically defend / ignore executive salaries at corporations, yet complain about union workers being overpaid and vice-versa. But, I suppose that reasoning is somewhat invalid here, if these guys are government employees.
 
Every time you hire a person, you have to pay medical insurance and other benefits. By not hiring other people, they may actually be saving money.

Of coures they could raise the transit rates for all the bums who ride the trains to work.
 
fleshconsumed said:
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.
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No, no... its typical "entitlement mentality". Everyone knows this.

😀
 
Hacp said:
I don't know where you come from, but from what I understand, if you're salaried, you don't get overtime. I guess its different if you're a lazy unionized government employee.
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I'm salaried and I get overtime. At my last job, in the private sector, it was the same deal. It's a normal practice. How old are you?


This guy made 67k, which seems like a pretty normal salary for that job, and another 60k in overtime, and the other 100k is unused leave. So why do you have a problem with him getting paid what he earned?
 
Throckmorton said:
This guy made 67k, which seems like a pretty normal salary for that job, and another 60k in overtime, and the other 100k is unused leave. So why do you have a problem with him getting paid what he earned?
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Capitalism, bro. We gotta pay him less than what he earned. It's those union fat cats who insist workers get paid for stuff they do. Back in my day (soviet russia) we'd work for free and that's the way we liked it.


One of my university instructors was an engineer in Romania before coming to Canada. When talking about how lazy everyone is under communism in that country, he said "we pretend to work while they pretend to pay us"
 
alphatarget1 said:
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 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.
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That might be the only way to get the union salaries in line. I have no problem with government if it is efficient(paying as low of a rate as possible), but when they give 250k to people sitting on a stool pushing buttons, that is pretty outrageous. I have no problem with people in the private sector doing it because you can boycott them. If you don't pay your taxes, government will come for you and send you to jail.
 
CitizenKain said:
Hahahaha

Hahahahahaha

Hahahahahahahahahaa
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Hong Kong's public transit system are private, the fares are reasonable, workers are reasonably compensated, the services are good, and the companies are profitable.

I'm sure there are some metro areas in the US that could use better management in their public transportation agencies. The ones in the suburbs obviously have to be subsidized, but maybe NYC, Chicago, DC, can look into privatization.

There are tons of ways to make things more efficient. The government just isn't really interested in saving taxpayers money.
 
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Hacp said:
That might be the only way to get the union salaries in line. I have no problem with government if it is efficient(paying as low of a rate as possible), but when they give 250k to people sitting on a stool pushing buttons, that is pretty outrageous. I have no problem with people in the private sector doing it because you can boycott them. If you don't pay your taxes, government will come for you and send you to jail.
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Don't use their services child.🙄
 
Throckmorton said:
I'm salaried and I get overtime. At my last job, in the private sector, it was the same deal. It's a normal practice. How old are you?


This guy made 67k, which seems like a pretty normal salary for that job, and another 60k in overtime, and the other 100k is unused leave. So why do you have a problem with him getting paid what he earned?
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67k normal salary a normal job? Since when! 67k is above average. Its 50% above the US average. Government workers making 50% more than your average Joe. Outrageous!
 
piasabird said:
Every time you hire a person, you have to pay medical insurance and other benefits. By not hiring other people, they may actually be saving money.

Of coures they could raise the transit rates for all the bums who ride the trains to work.
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Why can't you hire part time workers and avoid medical/other benefits completely like they do at starbucks? Because Unions won't let you! Unions and efficiency are two conflicting things. The more powerful the Union, the less efficiency government has.
 
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Hacp said:
67k normal salary a normal job? Since when! 67k is above average. Its 50% above the US average. Government workers making 50% more than your average Joe. Outrageous!
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To the defense of the worker, NYC is notoriously expensive to live in. I think 67k is somewhat reasonable. I just don't think management should schedule workers to have so much OT. This is the same in California where the prison guards are bending the taxpayers over by taking ungodly amounts of OT to make $$$.
 
Hacp said:
Why can't you hire part time workers and avoid medical/other benefits completely like they do at starbucks? Because Unions won't let you! Unions and efficiency are two conflicting things. The more powerful the Union, the less efficiency government is.
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Waaaaaahhhhh... the employers can't exploit their employees... waaaaahhhh!
 
Hacp said:
Why can't you hire part time workers and avoid medical/other benefits completely like they do at starbucks?
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Because train operators, drivers, maintenance workers, etc, have a lot more responsibility than a barista at starbucks. Starbucks, the worst that could happen is they spill some hot coffee over someone, or injuring someone if leave the floor slippery without warning signs.

I don't know how the MTA is. I rode it in NYC a few years ago. It was efficient but trains and stations are dirty. I had no problems with it.
 
alphatarget1 said:
To the defense of the worker, NYC is notoriously expensive to live in. I think 67k is somewhat reasonable. I just don't think management should schedule workers to have so much OT. This is the same in California where the prison guards are bending the taxpayers over by taking ungodly amounts of OT to make $$$.
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67k extremely generous for a "living wage" even in NYC. No, you can't live in Manhattan but you can live like a king in the outer boroughs. You need to remember most households have 2 people working.
 
The OP completely derailed any intelligent discussion with his opening comment. With that said, I do think this is indicative of runaway spending on public employees in New York State that is absolutely crushing the states budget. If I was living in New York paying the highest tax rates in the country in order to support the bloated wages and pensions of the politically powerful public employee unions, I'd be more than a little pissed off about it. Stories have been coming out lately about the average 63 days leave a bus driver takes after getting spit on, and cops who manipulate the pension formula in their final years to draw insanely high pension payments for the rest of their lives. I dont fault the workers for squeezing every dime out of the system for their own benefit, but this has to be reigned in. Take a look at Greece if you want to see what politically powerful public labor unions are capable of doing to a government when politicians always give in to their demands in pursuit of their votes. The old argument that unions are trading base pay for benefits doesnt even hold up anymore, because they make more than the private sector.
 
Hacp said:
67k extremely generous for a "living wage" even in NYC. No, you can't live in Manhattan but you can live like a king in the outer boroughs. You need to remember most households have 2 people working.
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How would you know, you don't work, pay bills like rent, heating oil and the like, put food on the table, dress your children,etc. 67K in greater Boston isn't going to afford anybody to live like a king let alone NYC which is even more expensive. Yes they'd live comfortably but isn't that the reason for working?
 
67k for someone that's worked there for how long...in NYC? That is not outrageous at all. That's not even outrageous where I live, and the nearest big cities are Chicago and Detroit which are 120 miles away.
 
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