OS wants you to know how much he makes

[shadeaux]

Omaha Steve  (1000+ posts)        Mon Sep-26-11 06:45 PM

Original message

Salaries of Omaha City employees in the Omaha World Herald (yep mine too)
 
http://www.omaha.com/article/20110926/NEWS/110929751#sa...

Published Monday September 26, 2011

Omaha City Councilman Franklin Thompson calls millions of tax dollars paid out for unused vacation and sick time "robbery."

Under city policy, employees can bank unused sick and vacation time over the course of a career, then cash in the hours when they leave at their higher salary. Over the past five years, the City of Omaha has shelled out more than $23 million in such payments, for an average payment of $25,000.

As part of the review of the payment practice, The World-Herald collected salary information for every city employee. It is available on our data page: http://dataomaha.com/omaha-city-salaries


$178,569,645 Total paid to Omaha employees in 2010

$45,965 Median 2010 earnings, City of Omaha employees

$43,692 Average 2010 earnings, City of Omaha employees

By: Matt Wynn and Ben Vankat, The Omaha World-Herald // Source: City of Omaha, in-house analysis //

 

[franksolich]

It looks to me as if my fellow Nebraskan makes pretty good money.

Maybe not by New York or California standards, but by Nebraska standards, he's a man of affluence.

And surely well-heeled enough that he can afford $38 a night at a budget motel so as to attend the protests in Wisconsin last spring (in fact, probably he can afford a suite in a five-star hotel up over there), or to buy his own aisle-side tickets to the upcoming Nebraska-Wisconsin football game, with a ticket to a Packers game included.

One wonders what he does with all of his money, given that he's always getting other people to pay for things for him.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Wasteful practice; neither the military nor Federal civil service can do that, both get to carryover ordinary leave only up to a certain limit (Which is more trouble to explain than it's worth, but in theory is based on carry over of only one year's worth).

[Chris_]

Wait, he has a job?  I thought he was on disability/workers comp.  What does he do for a living?

[franksolich]

Wait, he has a job?  I thought he was on disability/workers comp.  What does he do for a living?

The waterworks department there, or something like that.

He takes a lot of sick leave; if I were the city of Omaha, I'd tell him to take off circa 100 pounds, so he wouldn't have any more back problems.

[Chris_]

The waterworks department there, or something like that.

He certainly is qualified.  ---->

[NHSparky]

Wasteful practice; neither the military nor Federal civil service can do that, both get to carryover ordinary leave only up to a certain limit (Which is more trouble to explain than it's worth, but in theory is based on carry over of only one year's worth).

And when you consider that to take a long weekend usually requires taking 4-5 days of leave versus taking a single vacation day...

I'll type slow for the DUmmies.

I got 30 days of leave per year while on AD.  2.5 days per month.  Pretty good deal, right?  Well, not really.  I get 120 vacation hours currently, or three weeks.

Now let's say I want to take the time between this Christmas and New Year's off.  Let's say, for the sake of argument starting the 23rd of December through New Year's.  Well, in my current job, weekends are off, and since Christmas this year falls on a Sunday, that means the day after is when the holiday is observed.  And since New Year's then also falls on a Sunday, the following day is also an observed holiday, meaning I don't have to show up until Tuesday, 3 January 2012.  The only actual vacation I've burned is four days (27-30 December 2011.)

To get the same amount of time off in the military, I'd have to put in (and hope the chain approves) a leave request for 10 days.  

But unlike government employees, both in my current job and military, I'm only allowed to bank up to the amount of previous year's vacation, and only for one year, meaning you can't get over 60 days leave if you're AD (unless you were in a deployed status the previous year) or 240 hours of vacation.

[Chris_]

The last job/contract I had with paid vacation, you could carry over 40 hours in a calendar year on top of what you were allotted based on tenure or seniority.  It was the usual 1yr/40 hours - 5 years/120 hours that a lot of companies offer.

[Skul]

He certainly is qualified.  ---->

I saw what you did! 

[franksolich]

He certainly is qualified.  ---->

My fellow Nebraskan's an embarrassment to Nebraska.

I'm sure if he thought about it, Omaha Steve would remember who franksolich is, in real life.

franksolich was in the Omaha World-Herald, the second page of the first section (national and international news), or the first page of the second section (Nebraska news) during the early and mid-1990s; not a one-time flash-in-the-pan, but a pretty constant presence.

At least once a month, but usually at least twice, sometimes three or four times a month.

Even now, 16-18 years later, I still run into complete strangers who remember those stories.

But maybe the news stories pissed him off, because franksolich was doing it all on his own dime, rather than asking that other people pay his way.

[BEG]

Wasteful practice; neither the military nor Federal civil service can do that, both get to carryover ordinary leave only up to a certain limit (Which is more trouble to explain than it's worth, but in theory is based on carry over of only one year's worth).

My husband couldn't do that and he was one of the "rich" that DUmmies despise.  His vacation and sick days ended at the end of the year.

[shadeaux]

He certainly is qualified.  ---->

           

[Chris_]

It certainly wouldn't be available now.  A quick Nadin Google search turns up nothing.

[shadeaux]

It certainly wouldn't be available now.  A quick Nadin Google search turns up nothing.

 

You are on a roll tonight !

[GOBUCKS]

The weeping Omaha lardbucket needs help buying football tickets because he has no money. He and his wife, the loony Marta, spend all their money travelling the country, buying autographs from obscure TV actors, like the supporting cast from "My Mother The Car", and unnamed extras playing German soldiers in "Combat". Someday those autographs will be worth...(sigh)..nothing.

They don't realize it, but their goofy website is more embarrassing than nadin's diary entries lamenting her celibacy.

[franksolich]

My husband couldn't do that and he was one of the "rich" that DUmmies despise.  His vacation and sick days ended at the end of the year.

Probably the reason this is news here is because over the past several months, it's slowly been revealed about the large chunks of money city employees take with them, when they go on to a different job elsewhere, or retire.

You're talking awesomely large bundles of cash--six figures for even lowly-paid positions.

Unused sick leave and vacation time.

Because of the long-overdue publicity, they're reining it in now.

[franksolich]

The weeping Omaha lardbucket needs help buying football tickets because he has no money. He and his wife, the loony Marta, spend all their money travelling the country, buying autographs from obscure TV actors, like the supporting cast from "My Mother The Car", and unnamed extras playing German soldiers in "Combat". Someday those autographs will be worth...(sigh)..nothing.

Oh yeah.  I forgot about that.

But that's a hobby and recreation for my fellow Nebraskan; he needs to spend his own money on that.

On the essentials of life and important "causes," though, he'd just as soon have other people pay his way.

[BEG]

Probably the reason this is news here is because over the past several months, it's slowly been revealed about the large chunks of money city employees take with them, when they go on to a different job elsewhere, or retire.

You're talking awesomely large bundles of cash--six figures for even lowly-paid positions.

Unused sick leave and vacation time.

Because of the long-overdue publicity, they're reining it in now.

Well to be fair, he worked for the company for 17 years and had 7 weeks vacation and a lot of sick days every year.  He only used a few days vacation (between Christmas and New Years) and could go years with out taking a sick day. It really wasn't a huge deal that he lost them every year because he rarely used them and he received so many at the beginning of every year.  

We never took vacations DUmmies, it was always the "wrong" time with work. I'm really not a vacation person so it didn't really upset me. We both agreed though with this new job he has taken that we will go somewhere every year (not including Christmas). Even if it is just a long weekend, he is going to make time.

[GOBUCKS]

This thread reminds me of Pammie Dawson a few years ago, maybe during her championship season, when she wrote indignantly about how her privacy had been invaded by the press in Wichita. They had printed the salaries paid to every employee of the school system, by name, and she thought it was a shameful, despicable intrusion into her private life to print how much she made, down to the penny.

She then provided a link to the information, with detailed instructions on how to read the tables.

[franksolich]

This thread reminds me of Pammie Dawson a few years ago, maybe during her championship season, when she wrote indignantly about how her privacy had been invaded by the press in Wichita. They had printed the salaries paid to every employee of the school system, by name, and she thought it was a shameful, despicable intrusion into her private life to print how much she made, down to the penny.

She then provided a link to the information, with detailed instructions on how to read the tables.

Uh huh.

So much for the primitives having a brain.

[Gina]

Gov't here and we can collect up to 100 hrs sick time. Anything over that you get added to your check automatically as straight time.  

Vacation is pretty good.  2 wks your first year and then you work your way up to 6wks off by 20yrs I think

Oh and the best thing is you get paid for your birthday off and if you don't use more than 6 hrs sick in 3 months you get a bonus day.  

so I always earn an extra 5 days a year to add to my vacation time.

I do love my job though and never miss!  

[BEG]

This thread reminds me of Pammie Dawson a few years ago, maybe during her championship season, when she wrote indignantly about how her privacy had been invaded by the press in Wichita. They had printed the salaries paid to every employee of the school system, by name, and she thought it was a shameful, despicable intrusion into her private life to print how much she made, down to the penny.

She then provided a link to the information, with detailed instructions on how to read the tables.

Ha, I remember that.

[shadeaux]

Omaha Steve  (1000+ posts)        Mon Sep-26-11 08:37 PM

Response to Original message

1. Oh the suspense
 
Nobody found me?

 

Nobody cares OS.   

 

[franksolich]

Nobody cares OS.

franksolich, being on the ground here in Nebraska, almost breathing down Omaha Steve's back, already knew how much his fellow Nebraskan makes.

He's a lower-level employee, but by both Nebraska and Omaha standards, his pay's pretty good; there's a lot of people who work harder, and who put in a lot more hours, that would love his paycheck, rather than bitch about it.

[RWKindaGuy]

And when you consider that to take a long weekend usually requires taking 4-5 days of leave versus taking a single vacation day...

I'll type slow for the DUmmies.

I got 30 days of leave per year while on AD.  2.5 days per month.  Pretty good deal, right?  Well, not really.  I get 120 vacation hours currently, or three weeks.

Now let's say I want to take the time between this Christmas and New Year's off.  Let's say, for the sake of argument starting the 23rd of December through New Year's.  Well, in my current job, weekends are off, and since Christmas this year falls on a Sunday, that means the day after is when the holiday is observed.  And since New Year's then also falls on a Sunday, the following day is also an observed holiday, meaning I don't have to show up until Tuesday, 3 January 2012.  The only actual vacation I've burned is four days (27-30 December 2011.)

To get the same amount of time off in the military, I'd have to put in (and hope the chain approves) a leave request for 10 days.  

But unlike government employees, both in my current job and military, I'm only allowed to bank up to the amount of previous year's vacation, and only for one year, meaning you can't get over 60 days leave if you're AD (unless you were in a deployed status the previous year) or 240 hours of vacation.

I keep the 240 balance and only use my "use or lose leave" which I earn during the year.  I'll probably cash out the 240 when I retire.