Sewer worker made over $530K last year

[VirtualLarry]

I've visited San Francisco few times and even just visiting there is a part of my brain screaming, "you can't afford to be here!"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/08/us/san-francisco-dirtiest-street-london-breed.html

 

[lxskllr]

TBH I'm surprised how "low" the president pay is. I guess the 400k is peanuts compared to all the money that he gets from lobbyists etc though. That's how politicians really make their money, lobbyists. The salary is just an official number to put on paper.

The perks are pretty good. Free travel, peerless healthcare for life, the finest everything while serving, expensive gifts from foreign leaders... I don't pity any president over their salary.

 

[gorcorps]

Why is there so much overtime available?

It seems to me they either need to hire more workers or consider alternative work schedules to make sure they have employees working when they are needed.

If the problem is that there are too few qualified applicants for available positions, then what are they doing to address that issue? Have they spoken with schools to set up internship programs or to participate in career fairs that designed to encourage people to obtain the necessary training?

It said right in the article that there was a staff shortage that they're addressing.

It could be one guy that doesn't have any family, and he offered to take a lot of the OT from the other guys to get as much money as he can now. They quoted "99 other workers clocked over 400 hours of OT"... okay, but that's barely over 1 hour of OT per day average which is even lower than I put in. Seems like this guy for one reason or another was taking on a lot of the OT burden so the other guys didn't have to.

I said it before and I'll say it again... GOOD FOR HIM

The guy was averaging less than a double shift, 5 days a week. Frankly, that's not outlandish for a highly trained position that's short handed, because he's still on average getting his weekends. I have guys right now that are NOT getting weekends, and some have had to pull the 20 hour maximum because we're so short handed (it takes a full calendar year to train a replacement and leave them alone on shift). You think they don't want to fucking go home and sleep once in a while? Fuck everyone who think these hours need to be justified, or that people are just milking the clock and don't want to go home. People are out here busting their ass to keep you comfortable and you have the fucking balls to question why they work so much while sitting on your ass in an air conditioned office. They deserve to be compensated for hit.

 

[IronWing]

It said right in the article that there was a staff shortage that they're addressing.

It could be one guy that doesn't have any family, and he offered to take a lot of the OT from the other guys to get as much money as he can now. They quoted "99 other workers clocked over 400 hours of OT"... okay, but that's barely over 1 hour of OT per day average which is even lower than I put in. Seems like this guy for one reason or another was taking on a lot of the OT burden so the other guys didn't have to.

I said it before and I'll say it again... GOOD FOR HIM

The guy was averaging less than a double shift, 5 days a week. Frankly, that's not outlandish for a highly trained position that's short handed, because he's still on average getting his weekends. I have guys right now that are NOT getting weekends, and some have had to pull the 20 hour maximum because we're so short handed (it takes a full calendar year to train a replacement and leave them alone on shift). You think they don't want to fucking go home and sleep once in a while? Fuck everyone who think these hours need to be justified, or that people are just milking the clock and don't want to go home. People are out here busting their ass to keep you comfortable and you have the fucking balls to question why they work so much while sitting on your ass in an air conditioned office. They deserve to be compensated for hit.

So far this year, I've racked up over 500 hours of overtime, almost all of it in our four month Summer field season. I hit the 112 hour/week hard limit five weeks in those four months. By September, all I want to do is sleep.

 

[sdifox]

So far this year, I've racked up over 500 hours of overtime, almost all of it in our four month Summer field season. I hit the 112 hour/week hard limit five weeks in those four months. By September, all I want to do is sleep.

When I was still in government. I once pulled six months of overtime. No extra pay since I was an excluded employee

 

[Red Squirrel]

The perks are pretty good. Free travel, peerless healthcare for life, the finest everything while serving, expensive gifts from foreign leaders... I don't pity any president over their salary.

Yeah some events like travel alone are more than the whole salary in terms of cost. Like I forget how much it costs every time he has to travel somewhere (Even personal like golf course trip) it's hundreds of thousands, if millions. Having secret services around, the actual fuel for the plane etc... adds up.

Actually presidents can't drive at all anymore even after their term, wonder how that works, do they get a chauffeur and security forever paid by tax dollars? I could see someone holding a grudge against say, Bush, still want to harm him today, so I sorta see why they do it.

But yeah they are well off either way, definitely no pity from me either. 😛

 

[MixMasterTang]

Considering this guy worked almost as many overtime hours as he did regular hours, I highly doubt that is the case in this circumstance.

Article states his normal salary per year is $234,407.25 and his overtime pay was $237,389.73. With standard overtime pay at 1.5x normal hourly rate and sometimes 2x or 3x depending on circumstances I would guess he was putting in closer to 27 hours overtime per week. Also this position sounds more like some sort of engineer not just a "sewer worker".

 

[Cozarkian]

Article states his normal salary per year is $234,407.25 and his overtime pay was $237,389.73. With standard overtime pay at 1.5x normal hourly rate and sometimes 2x or 3x depending on circumstances I would guess he was putting in closer to 27 hours overtime per week. Also this position sounds more like some sort of engineer not just a "sewer worker".

The article said he worked 1992 hours of overtime for an average of 78 hours per week. If the wage breakdown is accurate, then he must have had a salaried position with a contract that pays straight time for overtime. if that is the case though, there isn't really any benefit to hiring another worker.

 

[FirNaTine]

The article said he worked 1992 hours of overtime for an average of 78 hours per week. If the wage breakdown is accurate, then he must have had a salaried position with a contract that pays straight time for overtime. if that is the case though, there isn't really any benefit to hiring another worker.

Another possibility with a report like this is that the "normal salary" was his total base compensation, including healthcare, retirement, etc. It's not unusual to see an extra 40-50% in benefits cost (I've seen new hires start at +60% because of a lower salary magnifying the healthcare and other fixed benefits but drop slowly as salary goes up, but retirement cost tracks increasing salary).

So a base salary around $165k +41.2% benefits cost would give you the 234,407 base while also giving an hourly rate of $79.45 or so on a normal 2080 hour work year. That at 1.5X OT rate happens to line up almost exactly with his reported OT earnings and hours.

And if they are an experienced engineer working in a technical field in a high cost of living area like NYC, $80/hr is not astronomical. From my experience, stationary engineers can either start on small equipment, pressure vessels like pumps, boilers, compressors etc. with some trade schooling and progress up in steps over many years to the largest industrial equipment. Or they can get a bachelors in mechanical engineering or similar and progress directly to larger equipment with a shorter term under supervision. Either way you end up paying for their schooling and/or experience.

<- government worker whose salary shows up in news publications from time to time.

 

[Darwin333]

I know this is a novel concept for you, but if you'd bother reading before commenting, even excluding the back pay which amounted to $67K, a sewer worker made more than the President of the United States.

If that doesn't strike you as ridiculous, then you've completely lost touch with reality.

Well in all due fairness, the president spews crap while the sewer engineer makes sure your shit goes in the right direction when you flush the toilet. I guarantee that if it was to go in the wrong direction for a week or two you wouldn't give half a fuck how much they made to fix the problem.

 

[FirNaTine]

Well in all due fairness, the president spews crap while the sewer engineer makes sure your shit goes in the right direction when you flush the toilet. I guarantee that if it was to go in the wrong direction for a week or two you wouldn't give half a fuck how much they made to fix the problem.

Agreed. And we have professional athletes, actors and celebrities that make orders of magnitude more money, for much less hours of work than either. And I could live just fine without them. But, modern sanitation has been one of the single largest contributors to increased human lifespan.

And if we want to compare to the president, lets look at the total cost of the office of the President, not just their nominal "salary." In any other business, free meals, free housing, personal non-business transportation (vacations, etc.) and many other benefits accorded the President would be considered and taxed as income.

 

[Midwayman]

TBH I'm surprised how "low" the president pay is. I guess the 400k is peanuts compared to all the money that he gets from lobbyists etc though. That's how politicians really make their money, lobbyists. The salary is just an official number to put on paper.

Yet at least once a week I get a meme on facebook from my liberal friends complaining about how much the president and senators make vs social security, welfare, etc. Its kind of laughably low pay compared to what someone would make in the private sector at their same level of position.

 

[Darwin333]

Actually presidents can't drive at all anymore even after their term, wonder how that works, do they get a chauffeur and security forever paid by tax dollars? I could see someone holding a grudge against say, Bush, still want to harm him today, so I sorta see why they do it.
😛

Yes, ex-presidents get secret service protection for life and I'm pretty sure their family does too.

 

[Darwin333]

Agreed. And we have professional athletes, actors and celebrities that make orders of magnitude more money, for much less hours of work than either. And I could live just fine without them. But, modern sanitation has been one of the single largest contributors to increased human lifespan.

And if we want to compare to the president, lets look at the total cost of the office of the President, not just their nominal "salary." In any other business, free meals, free housing, personal non-business transportation (vacations, etc.) and many other benefits accorded the President would be considered and taxed as income.

Not to mention the insane money they make after they leave office. They all write at least one book which is probably worth a bunch and then speeches, consulting gigs and lobbying make them a metric shitload of money. Not to mention the free taxpayer paid secret service protection for life and I'm pretty sure they get a nice free health plan.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

The perks are pretty good. Free travel, peerless healthcare for life, the finest everything while serving, expensive gifts from foreign leaders... I don't pity any president over their salary.

Plus the rest of their life companies like Goldman and other big banks will pay you ridiculous sums to go up to a podium and make some stupid speeches in front of an audience for tons of easy bucks.


Edit: b10 by Darwin

Not to mention the insane money they make after they leave office. They all write at least one book which is probably worth a bunch and then speeches, consulting gigs and lobbying make them a metric shitload of money. Not to mention the free taxpayer paid secret service protection for life and I'm pretty sure they get a nice free health plan.

 

[brianmanahan]

If that doesn't strike you as ridiculous, then you've completely lost touch with reality.

i'd bet that his job is more important than whatever you get paid seven figures to do