[quote=faterikcartman][quote=jpinpb]nsr – I would imagine that the increase in wage is OT. Before anyone goes on about OT being a good thing, many times it is just not a choice or option. It is a requirement. Even when they say it’s voluntary, if you don’t do it, you’re not a team player. Yes, they get compensated. But many times I’m sure they would rather be w/their family or surfing or riding dirt bikes or whatever hobbies people have in their lives. And if there’s a fire, they would work however long and necessary and required until the fire is out and that often is many days on end. The OT is not a plus, even though they get compensated for it. And as CAR alluded, it is still cheaper to pay the overtime, than hire new people.[/quote]
Give us a break. I’m sure I’m not the only one here who has worked in the private sector working 70+ hour weeks without ANY additional pay. It’s called working on a salary and you stay in the office all night and on weekends because you’ve got a job to do and you want to keep it.
Moreover, I could be wrong, but I think sdr’s numbers understate the true compensation by quite a bit. There are also benefits and retirement that probably add about $40,000 a year to those numbers.
And those salary range numbers — which don’t reflect real compensation — explain a lot about why more folks don’t go out for these jobs. As the real numbers that sdr pointed out get out there more and more people are going to be trying to sign up for the gravy train.[/quote]
BTW, “sitting in an office” working overtime is very different than what firefighters and cops have to do.
The largest chunk of overtime for firefighters is earned during fire season. They are working 12-24 hours at a time (I’ve known some who were awake for five days straight), breathing smoke and working in extremely hot, dangerous conditions, sleeping in the dirt or on top of fire engines for a few hours at a time, etc. They can be deployed for weeks or even months at a time (that’s where those really high O/T numbers come from). If you think they’re going to do that for free, you’re crazy.
