City Haul: More than a third of Chicago city workers make $100K-plus

[coldwine]

Are you telling me, Coldwine, a cynical woman/alcoholic/lawyer, that to running the third largest city in the nation requires a large mixture of highly educated professionals; bureaucrats; politicians; personnel; city services; public servants?

And they're being paid?

I thought that work was free! Why the hell aren't they in the private sector, earning nearly twice what they currently earn on a city budget as stymied as Chicago's?!

We should just slash ALL salaries to $25,000. No health benefits, either. And no pensions.

If the purpose and function of a vast metropolitan area's government is not immediately clear to me, it must be a scam to defraud taxpayers. I'm OK with my CEOs earning millions, but the moment you tell me a bureaucrat in charge of some bull**** field like "accounting" or "infrastructure" or "collecting garbage" or "electricity" is earning $100,000 is the moment I start burning this goddamn town to the ground!

[silverhead]

When do they have time to sleep, have family time?.Do they get double/ triple rate when they do overtime?.Thats what happens in the u.k. when you do overtime you get enhanced rates.Also I thought cops moonlighted other jobs because the pay was so bad?.

[chirack]

Originally Posted by silverhead

When do they have time to sleep, have family time?.Do they get double/ triple rate when they do overtime?.Thats what happens in the u.k. when you do overtime you get enhanced rates.Also I thought cops moonlighted other jobs because the pay was so bad?.

In the US if you are paid hourly(like most blue collar workers) you earn time and a half for time worked over forty hours a week. So lets say you make $15.00 an hour and you worked 10 hours of overtime you would get $225 worth of overtime pay and $600 worth of straight time for a total of $825.

Unions can have contracts calling for double time or even triple time for work that occurs on certain days like holidays or Sundays. Or the union contract can call for time and a half for working the holiday plus another day off with pay.

If you are paid by salary then you get the same if you work 10 hours or 80!

The US has no laws regarding sick time or Vacation time but Illinois State law requires that employees get paid for any vacation time not taken in the year. Unions tend to have much better sick and vacation time rules in their contracts.

Pay for Cops is rather good but Overtime is handed out by basis of seniority(due to unions) and a new cop might not be able to pull much overtime so they may tend to moonlight. Union contracts tend to call for increased pay by seniority so the new cop is at the bottom of the pay scale. Also small town and suburban cops might not have as much overtime because there are fewer events requiring overtime pay.

Also the true cost of employment is actually about three time what the person makes. In the US the employer pays a tax for unemployment, and social security(equal to what the employee contributed). It also pays for health insurance and retirement plans.

[noid_1985]

Counting other people's money lol, the city of Chicago as real fraud going on let's deal with that first

[BOBNCHI]

"It's cheaper to pay overtime than to hire someone new......"

Initially true, but don't forget to add in all the monies that are doled out in medical expenses and lawsuits of all kinds from having tired, stressed out cops on the beat!

[coldwine]

Truly, Chicago is the only city on the planet to have budget problems.

They must think we're insane. Issuing bonds? With interest rates? What is this, the 14th century?

Just what the hell is going on, that we're running afoul of the Church's usury laws?

[Atlanta_BD]

Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis

Whats wrong with making over 100k per year if you are working for it?

Exactly. Like people assume blue collar workers' jobs require no skill so should be paid less, they feel government workers are paid to do nothing. I used to be a government worker and trust and believe we work just as hard as anyone else.

You just have a great number of people who think that only white-collar professionals who work for private companies should earn decent salaries and that is not fair. Government workers are doing the same level of work that people do at private companies and are often paid much less for the exact same jobs.

Private sector folks just don't value working class people or public servants because many of these jobs are traditionally held by minorities. They don't want to see "those people" making as much money as they are to do jobs that they feel require no skill. They also see them as less intelligent. These are the same people who want service workers to be replaced by robots and don't want to see the minimum wage raised.

They are in denial about how much they need working class folks and public servants to keep society running.

I guess anyone who feels that city workers make too much money thinks that lowering the salaries of these employees will help shore up the city's budget. But how many of these people would happily volunteer to give up their jobs or take a cut in pay to keep their companies afloat? I'm pretty sure that would be zero.

[emathias]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

The numbers as presented include total benefits. These are not salaries alone.

Given that, I'm surprised the over $100,000 population isn't even higher. Many if the jobs for the City require experience and education that commands that rate of pay.

Look at Amazon's estimated average worker costs for their HQ2 location - over $100,000 in just salary on average. They may skew high due to the emphasis on software engineering, but highly efficient organizations tend to have high payroll costs and while you may not consider Chicago City to be "highly efficient" it's pretty efficient compared to other large cities. Plus, when you cut positions to help the budget, you can eliminate lower paid workers more easily because they're not doing the necessary high skilled things. You can make a manager do his own secretary work, but you can't have a secretary managing a department. So you eliminate those lower positions and total payrolls may go down, but the averages go up.

[emathias]

Really, instead of asking why so many people are making $100k, what you should be asking is why aren't more people making $100k, especially in the private sector. It's a lot better overall to push for more for everyone than to push for less for some. Maybe that's why income have stagnated - instead of pushing for more, people are caught up in pushing for less.

[mjtinmemphis]

Originally Posted by Atlanta_BD

Exactly. Like people assume blue collar workers' jobs require no skill so should be paid less, they feel government workers are paid to do nothing. I used to be a government worker and trust and believe we work just as hard as anyone else.

You just have a great number of people who think that only white-collar professionals who work for private companies should earn decent salaries and that is not fair. Government workers are doing the same level of work that people do at private companies and are often paid much less for the exact same jobs.

Private sector folks just don't value working class people or public servants because many of these jobs are traditionally held by minorities. They don't want to see "those people" making as much money as they are to do jobs that they feel require no skill. They also see them as less intelligent. These are the same people who want service workers to be replaced by robots and don't want to see the minimum wage raised.

They are in denial about how much they need working class folks and public servants to keep society running.

I guess anyone who feels that city workers make too much money thinks that lowering the salaries of these employees will help shore up the city's budget. But how many of these people would happily volunteer to give up their jobs or take a cut in pay to keep their companies afloat? I'm pretty sure that would be zero.

People who aren't secure have to have someone to look down on. If you want to make 100k find a job that pays that. It isn't about degrees and titles.