As Other Unions Sacrifice, Cops Union Boss Brags About Raises
It's not polite to brag, and it's certainly impolite for the head of the city's police officers union to brag about how little his union...
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Greg Dewar said:
July 30, 2010 12:51 PM
Reply
When TWU's leaders say "it's not our job to fix the budget" (as they did in the WSJ the other day) everyone screams bloody murder.
When the POA does the same, they get away with it. Hmm.
Also, don't forget the HUGE raise police got in 2007 when Newsom was up for re-election, busting the budget out big time.
Eve Batey replied to comment from Greg Dewar
July 30, 2010 1:32 PM
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Well, I don't have a dog in this fight, so maybe I'm just being shit-disturbery. But. I sort of assume a lot of cops might say that they deserve more than the average city employee because of the demanding nature of their jobs. The cliche, I guess, is "cops get shot at which janitors mop floors!" or whatever.
What do you think, does that argument hold water?
Equiman said:
July 30, 2010 4:03 PM
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To Eve's question:
Yes, the work of Police in San Francisco is very demanding.
The work of S.F. Firefighters is demanding, but less demanding than Police. That's my opinion.
Yet, Police & Fire have Parity in wages.
One reason you can tell that firefighting in San Francisco is a more desirable job is that when a Test is given for the Fire Department, the City receives 10,000 applications.
The SF Police have to really recruit in order to find enough qualified applicants.
OK, that said, more to your question regarding higher wages for Police & Fire work.
Repeating myself, both are demanding. However, let's look at supply and demand.
If 10,000 people want to be firefighters and the only qualification is a GED and be 21
to take the test, why do we need such high wages to attract applicants?
I would bet if you cut starting pay in half, you would still get 5-7 thousand applicants who have at least a GED and are at least 21. If you took the 100 best from that large a group, you would hire 100 very good people.
The question "Do Police and Fire deserve more money because of the nature of their job than other GED and 21 years of age requirement jobs?" should always be answered "Yes."
But let's pose another question:
How much should a City Attorney be paid who needs a minimum of 7 years of advanced education and passing the California State Bar in order to apply?
Would you have 10,000 applicants? Or would you have 100?
What about a Physician for the City? How much should he or she be paid?
Does the fact that they need perhaps 9 years of schooling and residency and passing State Boards play into a pay advantage over the GED and 21 year old Public Safety
worker? I think most would say "Yes."
How many would apply for a Physician's job? 25? 40?
Some cost of a commodity (in this case a person's labor) should be based on supply & demand.
"Dr. Terrazas currently serves as the Department Physician for the San Francisco Fire Department. His is board certification in Occupational and Environmental Medicine and obtained a Master of Public Health degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin. He completed his residency at the University of Pennsylvania."
Yet, in 2009, 330 San Francisco firefighters made more than Dr. Terrazas who made $155,000.
Because of this statistic, I believe the question that should be asked is, "Are we paying firefighters too much or Doctors too little?