NJ turnpike employee pulls in $321000

[OBLAMA2009]

at a time when lots of middle class people are having a hard time, government workers seem to be doing prettty well. you would think collecting bridge tolls would be a minimum wage job but one dood managed to bag more than $300,000 doing it:
http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/traffic/...-perks-for-nj-turnpike-employees-20101019-apx

 

[JS80]

loliberals @ "work"

 

[child of wonder]

Unfortunately, this kind of wasteful spending is present no matter what party is in office. It's a pity no candidate really cares enough or has the balls to do something about it.

 

[jhbball]

loliberals @ "work"

lol @ hard working conservatives posting on these forums all day.

 

[dca221]

Why is the Republican Governer Christie paying state employees over $300K?

 

[CycloWizard]

lol @ hard working conservatives posting on these forums all day.

How do you know they're not working in a toll booth on the NJ turnpike while posting here?

 

[Londo_Jowo]

I wonder how much of that went to union dues.

 

[Thump553]

Crappy reporting that is far too common. Gives the sensational facts (base salary of $73,469 balloons to $321,985) but doesn't even give a scintilla of explanation how that ballooning occured. The reporter leaves us guessing as to what should be the core of the story.

 

[nageov3t]

Why is the Republican Governer Christie paying state employees over $300K?

The biggest expense uncovered in the audit was $30 million in unjustified bonuses to employees and management in 2008 and 2009 without consideration of performance.

Chris Christie took office in 2010.

I'm just stunned and amazed that these weren't no-show jobs.

 

[Brovane]

Crappy reporting that is far too common. Gives the sensational facts (base salary of $73,469 balloons to $321,985) but doesn't even give a scintilla of explanation how that ballooning occured. The reporter leaves us guessing as to what should be the core of the story.

I thought exactly the same time. It would help if there was some type of breakdown.

 

[theeedude]

Tollbooth Willy done good for himself.

 

[rudder]

Why is the Republican Governer Christie paying state employees over $300K?

He took office in 2010 and it is not an easy thing to get rid of a government employee... plus the toll booth worker is probably in a union.

 

[Acanthus]

Why is the Republican Governer Christie paying state employees over $300K?

It wasnt his salary.

His salary was around $70k, they reached the $321k figure by rolling in all benefits, bonuses, perks, and company bowling leagues, etc.

The math is not shown with regard to how they reached the figure, but i'm sure it is no where near that actual cost.

 

[Pneumothorax]

It wasnt his salary.

His salary was around $70k, they reached the $321k figure by rolling in all benefits, bonuses, perks, and company bowling leagues, etc.

The math is not shown with regard to how they reached the figure, but i'm sure it is no where near that actual cost.

I already got a problem with his "base salary!" Since when is a damn toll both worker worth $70k? Most college GRADUATES won't earn that much. stinkin unions. Majority of states need to go bankrupt to cull all these sweetheart deals/pensions that these gov union workers have been getting all these years.

 

[Acanthus]

I already got a problem with his "base salary!" Since when is a damn toll both worker worth $70k? Most college GRADUATES won't earn that much. stinkin unions.

I agree, but it is not nearly as exorbitant as the article would have you believe.

Also, what is the cost of living like in his general area?

$70k is probably around the median.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

It wasnt his salary.

His salary was around $70k, they reached the $321k figure by rolling in all benefits, bonuses, perks, and company bowling leagues, etc.

The math is not shown with regard to how they reached the figure, but i'm sure it is no where near that actual cost.

Yeah, I thought the same thing. The article refers to the $321K being his pay after all "payouts and bonuses" are factored in - who's to say what that actually means? I am not defending the idea of a tollbooth worker making $300K - I just think there's got to be more to the story.

 

[Cheesetogo]

It doesn't say anywhere in the article that the guy was a tollbooth worker. Chances are pretty good that he's at a considerably higher level. Not that I think he should be making 320k, but 70 isn't necessarily unreasonable for a higher up position.

 

[Pneumothorax]

I agree, but it is not nearly as exorbitant as the article would have you believe.

Also, what is the cost of living like in his general area?

$70k is probably around the median.

Even then, being a gov worker ENTITLES him to receive pretty much his highest base salary for retirement with a minuscle contribution each year. For us in the private sector, to get the same returns would require us to dump at least 20-30% of our salaries each year into a retirement fund and expect 9% return (which is impossible)

 

[Dr. Zaus]

70k base with 320k after perks for the 30 year employee top-manager may make sense; Other high-end managers make more.

 

[werepossum]

These are generally union jobs, and it's pretty common for unions to steer tons of overtime to those faithful pro-union employees who are within a few years of retirement because their retirement pensions are based on the best of their last few years. A government employee earning $70K probably costs the state $150K - $180K as a base, so when you figure overtime you can get very expensive very quickly.

I would suspect though that this number is calculated to also include costs to the state which are not part of his actual compensation. For instance, are the free tolls properly part of your compensation if your job is actually on the toll road? Might as well include the cost of the building he works in. Certainly New Jersey has a broken and purposefully corrupt system, but the larger the number the better the story as well.

 

[soulcougher73]

LOL The only part of that article i didnt have a problem with was paying them more for working bdays and holidays. But damn even the base salary is rediculoous. I mean id love to have it for such minial work myself, but still. That is retarded.

 

[Dr. Zaus]

LOL The only part of that article i didnt have a problem with was paying them more for working bdays and holidays. But damn even the base salary is rediculoous. I mean id love to have it for such minial work myself, but still. That is retarded.

You would chose menial work over intellectually stimulating work in exchange for a few thousand dollars a year?

 

[sactoking]

http://php.app.com/njturnpike/search.php

 

[Acanthus]

http://php.app.com/njturnpike/search.php

Oh snap.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

You would chose menial work over intellectually stimulating work in exchange for a few thousand dollars a year?

a lot of people might if the menial work was guaranteed for life vs. stimulating work that would likely be shipped overseas. just ask all the hp people carly fiorina fired. i doubt any laid off hp engineers made anywhere near 300K