A friend (“Bob”) decided that it would be fun to get the training to become a reserve police officer here in Massachusetts. You have to be sponsored by a local police chief (i.e., personal connections are helpful). Is that hard to get? “There were 20-year-olds in my class,” noted Bob. “It is a great job for someone who didn’t go to college.”
How long does it take and how much does it cost to become qualified? “320 hours,” Bob responded. “I added up the training costs and my uniform and driving expenses and I have $7000 into getting the credentials. It would take about 20 shifts [directing traffic] working to pay that off.”
Massachusetts is a state in which utilities almost always hire off-duty police officers any time that repair work is being done near a road. This creates a lot of opportunities to direct traffic. How much does that pay? “Depends,” said Bob. “Today was $45 but in 4-hour blocks. I worked 4.5 hours and got paid for 8, so it worked out to about $80 per hour. Weekend pay on a holiday with overtime is $150 per hour.” Is there enough work to justify doing this full-time? “There is tons of work,” responded Bob, “and I could easily do this every day, but for pure reserve it would be hard to make over $100,000 a year. But it is a good way to get a full-time police job with a pension. There are public lists of what Boston PD makes – a bunch of them make over $200,000 a year. After retirement they can collect the pension and also take these hourly jobs.”
Alternatively a young person could — if she has a 130 IQ — study biochemistry for four years and the get a doctorate in eight more years (average) and then do four years of postdocs to get an associate prof position. She’ll be thirty-seven without ever making over US$40k and odds are with 130 IQ she has about a 20% chance of getting a chance at tenure track. Eighty percent of the time she’ll find herself without easily marketable skills and with no more academic job prospects. Maybe she can be a lab tech for $40k at a pharma company. Lucky she didn’t study physics or chemistry or she’d be in real career trouble.
There are public lists of what Boston PD makes – a bunch of them make over $200,000 a year. After retirement they can collect the pension and also take these hourly jobs.
Think of this high salary as a large transfer of wealth from the Boston property taxpayer to the IRS (via the federal income tax that the police officer will pay) and the social security system (via the FICA tax that the police officer and his employer both will pay).
But one must remember, Boston police officers are paid in strict accordance to a labor agreement that was negotiated by senior managers for the City of Boston, signed by the Mayor, and approved by City Council. Whether that contract is smartly negotiated could be debated.
In my city their full-time rate is $74/hr. Throw in pension + overtime and its easily a $200k+/yr job. It hardly seems appropriate that a public service job should earn 2x the median household income and top 1% (national) salary. Supporters might cite the danger of the job but statistically garbage collectors, pilots, fishermen, loggers, truck drivers, roofers, construction workers, taxi drivers, etc. are all more likely to be killed on the job. Meanwhile, my property taxes have gone up 100% in the last 10 years.
… and continuing my rant (I feel justified since I just paid my property taxes last week) if I were king of the world I would apply anti-monopoly laws to public sector unions. Every locale would be required to have 2 or more unions competing against each other for members and for contracts from the public employer. Why do unions get a pass on anti-monopoly laws allow them to raise prices without competition?
A bit tangential, but why is there a need for manned (police or otherwise) traffic control? In the UK road repair or similar work is done between a set of temporary traffic lights. On very small jobs you might see a pair of workers with stop/go signs, but anything taking a day or more seems to use lights. I’m sure the lights are expensive to buy, but they work 24/7 at a very low hourly cost. Is it just the done thing? Have the unions leant on the utilities? Or the lawmakers?
Is it only for young people? Seems like a decent way for reasonably young retirees to make some extra cash
Steve: My friend who joined up is in his late 40s. So I think it is a good option for a young retiree.
Ross: Having driven around the UK a bit I am familiar with the machines you talk about. I can’t remember ever seeing them in the U.S. In most states you can direct traffic or hold a stop/go sign without being a police officer, and the pay is corresponding lower, but in Massachusetts it is still a police-only job in practice (see http://www.wbur.org/2011/09/26/flaggers for some of the history and also a disclosure that the pay rate, even for a civilian flagger, is about 4X the minimum wage; as noted in http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/12/civilian_flaggers_earn_near_cop_wages it would be illegal for an employer and employee to negotiate a lower wage for this type of work).
JGalt: That this government-set wage is above market rates and that taxpayers and utility customers are paying more than they would need to in a market economy is plain. But with government running 50 percent of GDP (if you include Obamacare) we don’t live in a market economy and the trend is toward more central economic planning, not less. Most Americans seem to want the government to set wages and other terms of employment so I wouldn’t be too concerned about this opportunity disappearing before a person can complete reserve police officer training. And it is a good reminder to young Americans that for most people it doesn’t make sense to work in the private sector of the U.S. economy.
@philg: And it is a good reminder to young Americans that for most people it doesn’t make sense to work in the private sector of the U.S. economy.
Over the past thirty years, I’ve held mid-level non-union professional jobs in the private sector, and federal, state, and local governments. I’ve strung together two relatively low-dollar government defined benefit pensions that I will begin to collect at age 62. (I’ve been required to contribute 3% of my earnings toward these prospective pensions.) Despite two marketable graduate degrees from reputable universities, thirty years’ experience, and fairly complex job requirements, my annual government salary has maxed out at $70K. A government job generally provides more job security and better benefits than a private sector job; and the federal government generally pays better than state and local. Government generally pays better than private-sector for similar entry and lower-level jobs, but worse for professional and management jobs. Risk averse people seem to seek government employment. Last week, a well-educated, non-risk averse family member working in the private-sector cashed out a large stock grant from his employer for $1 million! It would take many or, perhaps, most government workers twenty years of full-time work to earn $1 million in wages.
Pay and benefits for police and firefighter jobs are overly probably excessive in many jurisdications considering the large pool of candidates that can do and want these jobs, and the minimal educational requirements. Police & fire have strong unions (and weak elected officials) to thank for that.
@Steve: Is it only for young people? Seems like a decent way for reasonably young retirees to make some extra cash
Over twenty years ago, my Dad retired at 55 y/o after a 30-year engineering career spent w/ a couple of large government defense contractors. A couple of years later, he took a part-time job as a crossing guard with a FL sheriff’s department. He enjoyed the activity and the $10/hour, but the requirements were 2 hours in the AM and then 2 hours in the early afternoon, and that eventually conflicted with the other things he wanted to do. He and several others ended up quitting on the same day when, in an effort to save money, the Sheriff transferred the crossing guard jobs to a private contractor, who immediately eliminated all fringe benefits.
Gov job maxed out at $70K/year with grad degrees? Nowdays $70 K/year seems like level 7 or 8 gov job. Two grad degrees sound more like level 13/14 to director, especially in gov where degrees are valued regardless their utility.