One of the reasons for the higher wages might be more overtime requirements. It’s possible that the city was actually trying to save money by having existing workers work overtime instead of hiring additional employees.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, they’ve done studies that show it’s less expensive to use overtime workers than it is to hire new workers. This is largely because of administrative expenses, training expenses, and benefits.
I don’t know the specifics behind this story, but as pablo mentioned above, the author may have omitted facts that are needed to get the real story.
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And to those who say we should lower wages when times are bad because “everybody else” wants these jobs…
The cost to train public safety employees is immense. The kind of people who apply during hard times (but not good times) are the same people who will leave when times get better. It’s actually in the taxpayers’ best interests if the city has a stable employee base.
The hiring process itself also costs a tremendous amount of money because you don’t just sit in front of a panel of people and answer questions. The hiring process usually is a multi-day affair with manipulative tests (think lots of equipment and training facilities, and overtime for multiple higher-level captains, chiefs, etc.), psychological tests, background checks, etc… in addition to the “normal” written tests and oral interviews most private sector employees are familiar with.
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All that being said, there are ways to cut expenses, and I’ll be the first to say that public employees need to contribute a greater portion of their wages to their pension plans, which took huge losses in the markets last year.
Additionally, cities waste a whole lot of money, but that is usually due to political pressures. Most high-level city workers are aspiring politicians, and the same things go on there that you see in D.C. politics. Much of the corruption has to do with REAL ESTATE.
There. Had to tie it in with the housing bubble somehow. 🙂
