The average police officer in the bay area makes around $120k and firefighters $150k. This is just for 40h/week, and any additional time gets paid at 1.5x the rate. It is not uncommon for either profession to take in $250k+ in cash a year pre-tax. They also have excellent benefits in addition. Apparently, one thing that keeps their salaries much higher than the nation's average is the generous pension and liabilities laws surrounding government workers, which makes it more cost effective for police and fire departments to schedule overtime than hire another staff member. What do you think of these salaries? Do you think there needs to be changes? Sources: Forbes, business insider, other credible major news agencies, SF police department website, and government salary data.
Keep in mind some trolls will skew your results
Oh no, this is sourced from legit news sources, SF police department website itself, and government salary databases
He/she means your poll results.
They risk their lives everyday to protect the citizens and make you code monkeys safe. They deserve more.
Um... Ok. By that logic, people should be paid for what, the protection they provide, rather than by the economic value they generate? Should we instead of letting the market decide, pay every solder 2x or 3x what they earn right now?
^I bet your company would make less money if criminals ransacked the office daily
Don’t forget the fact that they risk their lives to keep us safe and also the fact that they have to work during holiday season. If anything it has to be raised not reduced. Also the fact that less money would give them more reasons to be corrupt to sustain in Bay Area and that can only lead to problems.
Literally no one is forgetting that. That is the first thing that comes to mind when people think about what they do. But you have to realize the pay here is abnormally high, even taking into consideration the higher living expenses. Please look at the ratios between teacher's salaries and police salaries by state, and you'll see that California's ratio is way off the norm by national and international standards. Also much higher than military people, so, it's not the risk life factor that's causing the high pay.
Take all your arguments, put it towards nurses, midwives, teachers, and any other essential services that keeps a city running, and you should be able to convince yourself not every essential service could be paid that much. You could also look at how much these essential services are paid compared to others in other parts of the nation. The ratios are pretty consistent except for here, where they're way out on the tail of the distribution. Unless you think everywhere else in the world police and firefighters are underpaid, you've got something wrong in your economic intuition.
Nope. I don't think that. I actually think that you software lot are overpaid for what you do. I think how much someone should be paid though, should be determined by a combination of market forces and social need. Is there a problem you see with that? Right now, the disparity between the pay here and other states is because there is no market forces, just legislation driving it.
They pay me 360K for writing design docs. 120K for getting shot at does not sound like a lot...
Why not? I mean by that argument shouldn't all dangerous jobs from mining to policing all make $120k? You think pay should be determined by the danger of the job, rather than the economic value of the produce produced?
The firefighter generates value by not letting the million dollar homes burn, no? Wages are normally set by supply and demand, not how dangerous the job is or the economic impact of the job. Although it is related: fewer people want dangerous jobs and demand is higher when companies have a lot of money. Of course, there are non-market forces such as laws, unions, visas etc.
I want them paid well. Visit Mexico to see what it’s like if you don’t pay your police well. They do a dangerous job and wield a lot of power. We need incentive for decent honest people to apply.
So, police do a good job in most states in the US. Most states in the US do not pay them even close to this well. National average is only 60k. So, I'm not sure where this twisted logic is coming from where if they don't make 120k, you get cartel Mexico. That's really poor reasoning, especially coming from a Google employee.
60k in Kansas != 60k in Bay Area when it comes to quality of life you can get. I believe by that is the “twisted” logic. If someone can’t support their family and live an average comfortable life after working so hard, they are more prone to be swayed. Simple as that. 120k isn’t terrible, but it isn’t great either if you look at rent and living costs. The rent itself would be like 3-4k if it’s reasonably close to work.
Right, lets cut pay of police and fireman but god forbid if someone mentions that CEOs pay needs to be capped
Doesn't logically follow. I, and many others who've voted very differently on this poll, would all support cutting CEO pay.
Also most firefighters in the US earn only about $40-50k
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Source?
Feel free to do a quick Google search. Source is literally every credible news site, the SF police website itself, and government salary databases
You could just give it with fewer words typed.