• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

$100k a year - as a Garbage Man???

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

DP Veteran
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
31,194
Reaction score
19,660
Location
East Coast - USA
Gender
Undisclosed
Political Leaning
Centrist
The $100,000 job: Garbage workers - Feb. 24, 2016

Molina made $112,000 last year as a garbage truck driver and Sankar made $100,000 as a helper, riding on the back of the truck. Their wages have grown in eight of the last nine years, according to their bosses, brothers David and Jerry Antonacci, owners of Crown Container, a waste management company.
Click to expand...

Don't laugh at these guys, they might make more money than you.
 
There are many occupations where college is not a requirement. My view is that a majority of American youth are not interested in "menial" jobs. There is a theory, (I don't subscribe), that any college degree is better than only a high school diploma. Anthropology seems to be a popular field, but what does it offer as far as careers? Plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics are careers that are being filled by immigrants willing to work and don't mind having to wash their hands at the close of business.
 
Rexedgar said:
There are many occupations where college is not a requirement. My view is that a majority of American youth are not interested in "menial" jobs. There is a theory, (I don't subscribe), that any college degree is better than only a high school diploma. Anthropology seems to be a popular field, but what does it offer as far as careers? Plumbers, electricians and auto mechanics are careers that are being filled by immigrants willing to work and don't mind having to wash their hands at the close of business.
Click to expand...

Have you SEEN what it costs to do a full house re-wire or re-pipe? The competition as a contractor is fierce but there is plenty of money to be had for someone doing work to code at a fair price.
 
They're union, hourly, and work overnight (shift diff), and about 55-60 hours per week.

This is evidence of a municipality getting hosed by a contractor, likely joint owned by an elected official.
 
Median for that job is 45k.
 
While the heroes of this story are outliers (union members, working 55 to 60 hours per week and in a very high cost area) the fact remains that specialty trade workers (including welders, plumbers and electricians) can and do make decent salaries without need of college (and in some cases HS) educations. That is not to say that no added training or personal drive/effort is required or that they do not face serious competition and must often work in less than ideal conditions.

Being paid on an hourly basis likely at time and a half for 15 to 20 hours per week helps too. To make $112K/year means making about $2,240/week or about $40/hour ($32/hour as a base rate for 40 hours plus $48/hour for 20 hours of overtime). Many trades charge the customer far above that hourly labor rate - think about the time (labor) that it takes to dump your trash once per week for a month (maybe .5 man hours total?) and the monthly fee that you pay for that service. ;)
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Government jobs (including this one) are often awarded by bid to private contractors. Thanks to the Davis-Bacon Act, "prevailing" wage floors are used to prevent "bargain" contractors from seriously underbidding the "regular" (connected?) winners.

https://www.wdol.gov/wdol/scafiles/davisbacon/ny4.dvb
Click to expand...

Well, that's a ridiculously stupid approach to bidding the business.

I wonder what it cost the successful to bidder to have his theft approved by the decision makers...
 
ttwtt78640 said:
The story (OP link) states that these are contractor personnel.
Click to expand...

It sounds like the bid rules eliminate the possibility of an honest bid.

When corruption is mandated by law and promoted by the authorities, corruption is very difficult to uproot.

When did governing in the interest of the people end completely in New York?
 
code1211 said:
It sounds like the bid rules eliminate the possibility of an honest bid.

When corruption is mandated by law and promoted by the authorities, corruption is very difficult to uproot.

When did governing in the interest of the people end completely in New York?
Click to expand...

When unions became a a major determining factor in public elections.
 
NYC needs to catch up.

In SoCal, you hear periodic stories of prison guards and bus stop custodians making over 300k, milking overtime while charging towards early retirement.
 
It's a sweet operation, really. The union throws it's weight around with the public officials, to set up crap like Davis baker. This helps them bring in more companies, because now the established company can't be under bid, the employees stay loyal because they enjoy inflated wages, etc etc etc.
 
code1211 said:
Well, that's a ridiculously stupid approach to bidding the business.

I wonder what it cost the successful to bidder to have his theft approved by the decision makers...
Click to expand...

Not much usually - once a contractor wins a bid then they have a huge advantage in keeping that business. The powers that be can assert that a mere 10% savings potential by taking a "risky" bid does not justify dumping a "proven" contractor known to have satisfactorily performed that job in the past. ;)

From personal experience I can verify that taking the low (especially the lowest by far) bidder on a job is not often a wise move. Much of my work is fixing the mess caused by a previous "bargain" contractor.

Recently I was called to fix a hole in a roof that allowed raccoons into an attic where they destroyed some A/C duct work. After patching that (20" x 16") hole and replacing the damaged duct work, I told the customer (homeowner) that the entire roof was in serious need of repair and that they should contact their insurance company.

It turned out that the roof had allegedly been "properly" repaired/replaced in late 2011 (per their insurance company records) - what actually happened was a "jiffy" cover over (simply adding another layer of new shingles) was done and no needed decking, rafter or flashing repairs were made at that time. I pointed out several other major roof problems: cracked/split rafters, water damaged decking, rotted facia/soffit, missing/damaged flashing & drip edge and offered advice to have their homeowner's insurance company (re)investigate the current state of the roof. Adding twice the weight of shingles is one of the worst possible "repairs" for an already seriously damaged roof.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom