Quote:
Originally Posted by Chocaholic
No disagreement but one major difference is the other professions you identify require significant degreed education and licensing and are accompanied by 6 figure salaries. As long as we're recruiting high-school dropouts with a Rambo complex and pay them the princely some of $28k/year, we'll get exactly what we have today.
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Not all cops work for cheap.
NYC, Nassau County, Suffolk County, starting pay is just north of $40k. Sergeants typically make 6 figures. They work 3 days on and 4 days off so many of them have side construction businesses or other contract work. Not only do they get OT they get triple time pay for working big holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving.
Not sure if they've amended the contract but a budget problem was pension. At 20 years in service these guys got 100% of their last year salary as their pension. Which means they would not use any sick or vacation days. Unused days get paid out as cash so they increase the base. Then they would work every OT and triple time shift available. They could easily increase their base by 50% for the year.
You had guys in their mid 40's retiring with pensions in the $200k range who would then go start a second career.