3 ms·

In what world are construction workers paid $1000/day? That's an exaggeration, but your point stands.

• chimeracoder 9y ago
  > In what world are construction workers paid $1000/day? That's an exaggeration, but your point stands. The MTA. That's not at all an unusual amount for total compensation expenses for an employee.
• bgentry 9y ago
  The $1,000/day figure comes directly from the NYT article quoting the head of construction at the MTA. This is the paragraph after the one I quoted previously: Nobody knew what those people were doing, if they were doing anything,” said Michael Horodniceanu, who was then the head of construction at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs transit in New York. The workers were laid off, Mr. Horodniceanu said, but no one figured out how long they had been employed. “All we knew is they were each being paid about $1,000 every day.
  • nasredin 9y ago
    >Nobody knew what those people were doing, if they were doing anything I just can't help but smile and remember the scene from The Sopranos of some wiseguys seating in lawn chairs at the construction site eating pastrami sandwiches... but in a tunnel this time!
• nine_k 9y ago
  The 1000/day is not necessarily all received by the employee. It includes taxes, insurances of various kinds, etc. It's the expense, no the salary.
  • bluGill 9y ago
    True, but 1000/day is still high. I doubt the foreman makes that much (I'd consider $40/hour high for a foreman, but NYC probably pays higher wages than you would get here). The $1000/hr is probably a bureaucrat who sat at a desk pushing papers. There is some value in that job, but it is easy to find useless make-work to appear busy withing getting anything important done.