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City of Seattle workers earning six figures

I saw this in the most recent Sunday Seattle Times and though of my freinds at APC.

1 in 5 city of Seattle workers earning six figures.

Most are police officers, firefighters and city light workers.

Local News | 1 in 5 city of Seattle workers earning six figures | Seattle Times Newspaper

Skyhigh

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkyHigh (Post 1056792)

I saw this in the most recent Sunday Seattle Times and thought of my friends at APC.

1 in 5 city of Seattle workers earning six figures.

Most are police officers, firefighters and city light workers.

Local News | 1 in 5 city of Seattle workers earning six figures | Seattle Times Newspaper

Skyhigh

Unless I missed it somewhere it's too bad they did'nt include in this piece what the other 80% are averaging .:rolleyes:

Ally

Quote:

But even as the belt-tightening occurs and some wages are frozen, the city is paying out for what was negotiated before the recession — salaries that make Seattle more competitive with other jurisdictions.

As is often said here on APC - you are worth what you can negotiate.
Seems that their unions were pretty successful in all of the three departments.

Quote:

Seattle police officers were relatively underpaid before 2008, O'Neill says. Until then, their annual starting pay ranked behind seven West Coast cities used as comparables in bargaining. (The "West Coast Seven" are Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Long Beach, Oakland, San Jose and San Diego.)

Sounds like they finally got what they were worth when compared to other jurisdictions.

Quote:

Seattle was having well-documented problems hiring new officers back when the economy was roaring. And it was losing its own to nearby cities that paid more. The 2008 contract aimed "to stop the exodus," O'Neill said, "and attract the best and brightest."

Sounds like they didn't have teenagers or young adults on their professional internet forums saying stuff like "I have wanted to be a policeman all my life! I don't care about the money as long as I get to drive the car and turn the lights on".

Quote:

Overtime is key

"We're infected by people, exposed to carcinogens, it's all this invisible stuff, not just collapsing buildings," he says.

One big difference, though, between pay for police and firefighters is overtime.

While overtime amounted to just 6 percent of city payroll last year, it was a decisive factor for a majority of the city employees who made six figures last year — particularly firefighters.

Ah. Having to work longer, harder, at some of the most dangerous jobs.

Quote:

O'Neill says. "We have the most dangerous jobs."

Good for those guys and gals. They deserve it.

USMCFLYR

Quote:

Originally Posted by DYNASTY HVY (Post 1056802)

Unless I missed it somewhere it's too bad they did'nt include in this piece what the other 80% are averaging .:rolleyes:

Ally

They did somewhat.
It isn't all roses and butterflies on the city payrolls.

Quote:

To be fair, 8,500 of the city's 10,600 workers took some kind of hit in pay this year — either a freeze, or a reduced cost-of-living increase, according to Mayor Mike McGinn.

USMCFLYR

Quote:

Originally Posted by USMCFLYR (Post 1056809)

They did somewhat.
It isn't all roses and butterflies on the city payrolls.

USMCFLYR

Hopefully things will get better at some point .
At least I fixed Sky's typo's :D.

Ally

Not a bed of roses, but 20 years ago the thought that a city beat cop could make more than a legacy airline captain was preposterous. When I was flying for a regional starting urban firefighter jobs in my state paid more than ten year captains at my airline.

Now after a few years with the department and some overtime an urban firefighter in my state can earn as much as a domestic legacy airline captain. Not bad at all.

Skyhigh

Perhaps future history books will mention as an example of the excesses of our overextended culture the ultimate vanity of spending a small fortune on training and education for careers that had slim hope of ever being able to earn back the cost that it took to get there?

People who live closer to the edge certainly would not commit resources on anything unless it offered a more certain and superior return. Police, firefighters and of course mailmen are common jobs that do not require the same investment or risk as the typical flying career.

Skyhigh

thats right sky... no risk in being a firefighter or police officer.... base line stats... approx 110 firefighters die in the line of duty in this country each year... with another 20000 or so injured. Police officers.... its depending on where you look, between 100 and 200 police officers killed each year in the line of duty... with more that 50000 more assaulted or injured while on duty.... yep...no risk in that job. just saying.....

Cop-Learn the joy of dealing with your fellow man, who you stopped on a rainy hiway at 3AM, while he tries to choke you to death and gouge out your eyes and you reciprocate by trying to crush his skull with a flashlight.

Postperson-Watch the blue uniform and snappy satchel suck every last bit of soul out of you for a lifetime- to destroy a man, just make his work worthless, and junk mail is the bulk of it.

IT - make six - figures or more, no stress, no overtime, make my own schedule, and work with 5 others equally motivated geeks solving some cool technical problems for a DoD / fed gov...Cheers...God Bless America!

p.s. It pays to walk away if you aren't happy or getting the compensation package you want.