Posted on 12/24/2019 9:05:58 AM PST by SeekAndFind
We all know the stories, at least if we live in California or New York, about the California prison guards who retire on six-figure pensions, or the school custodians who for their six-figure salaries, can't be bothered to sweep the floors at New York's run-down public schools.
Turns out those outrages aren't just apocryphal, they are going on now. According to an item in ZeroHedge, via Forbes, citing a new data compilation at OpenTheBooks:
The work of our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com tells a compelling story: Public service is supposed to be about serving the people. However, the good intentions of America’s 19 million public employees come at a very high price for the people – nearly $1 trillion. In many cases, taxpayers generously fund these employee salaries.
Our online database is free to use and includes most employees within the federal, state, and local governments. You can search in your backyard or across the nation. Find out just how much public employees made last year. The salary records include name, salary, position title, and employer for 2017.
The data is full of stunning examples.
Tree trimmers in Chicago lopped off $106,000.
New York City school janitors cleaned off $165,000 while out earning the principals at $135,000.
Lifeguards in Los Angeles County, California, made up to $365,000.
In the small school district in Southlake, Texas (8,000 students), the school superintendent earned $420,000.
You'll work till 80 so they can retire at 50, and you'll pay those monster pensions to boot.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
its always been a dirty little secret that teachers actually get well compensated, that military service pays far higher then similar work in the private sector, that skill-less desk sitters can manage to afford the best of everything....
but I know.....they "earned" it so there...
The worst thing JFK did was allowing public employees to unionize.
When I worked in a NJ public school
The highest paid employee was one of the Custodians
That guy practically lived at the school, working all the overtime he can get his hands on
Next highest paid person was the Superintendent
Then the gym teacher, all of those school sports (coaching) pay well and gym teachers get first dibs at them. That guy brought it 120K (in 2008ish) and bitched how low paid he was.
Then the business administrator and assistant school principal
I’m a teacher in Los Angeles and I have to agree: I have never complained about the pay. The expectations they have of us are ridiculous, and if I actually did everything they say I should be doing, I’d literally be working 80 hours a week (except in summer, when they actually do want us still working and training as much as possible, but they can’t force us). But I don’t complain about the pay. In fact, increasingly I’d take a cut in pay if they would lay off the pressure for me to perform miracles for 180 kids a year, put on a dazzling show every day, several times a day, a new show the following day, to magically turn kids with no academic interest into little Einsteins. The pressure is constant and wildly unreasonable, and I am beginning to really hate the job. But yeah... the pay is not the problem. The cost of living in Los Angeles is a bit of a problem, but... (sigh)
The worst conflict of interest in history. Gotta end some day or end up like Venezuela.
In Californicator land we have retired sheriffs and chief’s of police becoming city managers or asst to something.
Their retirement pay is often over 200K/year, and their new job pays over their retirement pay.
So you have guys in their 40’s or early 50’s getting an incredible retirement plus an incredible current salary.
Their health benefits are top drawer with minimal if any withholding for those benefits.
Some folks know how to play the PERS to their benefit. YUGEly.
At my kids’ middle school, there is a ‘guidance counselor’ who does class scheduling and makes, last time I checked, $235K per year. She’s also head of the union for the school district.
Pretty good gig for 180 school days per year and gold-plated health-care and retirement.
She’s also the most useless and brainless administrator in the entire school.
A similar thing could be said about academia and their scam of gouging students with ever increasing tuition costs and putting the hapless borrowers in debt for decades to come.
eg....the "poor"....the "poor" in this country make out pretty dang well considering their SS, and perhaps for all their family members, their food stamps, their free health care, housing, bus passes, etc....there was a report a couple of weeks ago that actually not working and just collecting gives a person as good a life as someone working full time but low paying jobs..
Read a few years back..the Assistant fire chief in Boston became fire chief when the the Fire chief went on vacation..he retired at fire chief pay... what a scam
Don’t use too broad of a brush to paint with. I was the Public Works director at a small city in Washington State and I had my assistant water superintendent retire at age 50, because he could, under the PERS 1 pension system. Under that system his retirement was based off of the top 2 years of pay. At the time he retired he was making about $48,000 and with 30 years at 2%/year that would be $28,800/year. His medical to cover him and his wife was going to cost him at the time (pre-Obamacare) $1,500/month or $18,000. I tried to talk him out of it but he wanted to be an ass so away he went.
A year later he wanted to get his job back but I just laughed in his face. Lat I heard he was driving long haul trucks.
My point is Washington State’s pension system is not the gold plated one we hear about in California, NY, or Illinois. We do see a lot of retired California LEO and FF’s try to come up and take the open Chief’s jobs though so they can double dip.
What a shameless scam by often worthless public “servants”. Many despise Citizens. Pathetic. Criminal.
I agree.
She’s also the most useless and brainless administrator in the entire school.
Aren’t those requirements to be a “‘guidance counselor’”!
Not even close.
“You’ll work till 80 so they can retire at 50”
That’s absolutely true. My dad turned 79 this year and is still working 6 days a week running his one-man store.
I have no idea what retirement costs in your state.
In California, it is outrageous. I learn more about our retirement scams each day.
I’m so dumb that I thought that coaches got a few bucks for coaching.
If they coach big draw sports with good teams in football and basketball, it is a big chunk of change to go with their teachers or principal’s salary.
One of our adult sons with a good paying double engineer management job has been approached with dual offers as manager of the school and grounds and any expansions or new construction in a local school and a private one 30 miles away.
Good pay, and an added bonus if he coaches wrestling or asst coaching in football in the private high school or the local one in his area. The local high school would be a 5 minute bike ride and a 10-15 minute run from his home.
Both jobs provide a pickup truck at no cost and excellent health care insurance for a few bucks each month.
In the age of class warfare, I’m surprised the American taxpayer has let this go on this long and this quietly.
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