4 ms·

Wow. BART employees make more than an average Software Developer and yet they want to go on a strike. What a shame.

justizin 13y ago
Actually, the high salaried employees you see are people like the General Manager who refuse to personally come to the bargaining table at all, and probably approve raises for themselves. The average salary of striking workers is about $61k, and management has accepted that their current offer only results in a substantive increase of $1 over four years, after BART workers accepted a freeze four years ago to inject $100M into the system. More info: http://www.keepbartrunning.com/an_open_letter_to_the_community_from_the_bart_workers
- peter_l_downs 13y ago
  Try looking at one of the later pages in the document -- average salary is around 30k! I believe your numbers for sure, just wanted to offer a clean example of "no, not everyone gets paid 80k base + 120k overtime." http://imgur.com/2vfQ1qi http://imgur.com/2vfQ1qi, from http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area?Entity=Bay%20Area%20Rapid%20Transit&appSession=31916186704428&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=2&CPIpage=1&cbJumpTo=123 http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area?Entity=Bay%20Ar...
  - tlogan 13y ago
    Ok - for car cleaning you get $55K/year (plus full benefits). Is that a lot or too little? I don't know.. nurses I know don't earn much more in Bay Area but I might be hanging out with wrong people...
    - jholman 13y ago
      Nitpick: That $55k includes benefits, actually. That's $35k base, a little OT, a few weeks of vacation, M/D/V benefits, and pension contributions. I'd call that "$35k plus full benefits" if I was summarizing. Maybe "plus great benefits" if you wanted to slant it (I dunno if those MDV costs are high or low, though). Betcha the nurses you know are making more than that.
- anigbrowl 13y ago
  That leave sout some pertinent information. Unlike many other employees in the private and public sector, BART employees make no pension contributions. I think a salary increase identical to a (new) mandatory pension contribution is a substantive increase, just a deferred one. There are also performance-related bonuses on offer. Average salary does not tell use a whole lot, and omits salient facts like additional earnings from overtime.
- bobo13579 13y ago
  The average pay for a Bay Area worker is $65K. That worker is a professional with a college degree. Why does unskilled transit work deserve so much pay?
  - apineda 13y ago
    They provide a great service to people like you and I who use their transport, washrooms etc. If they were not paid well they would not do their jobs and the BART system would be in disarray. They deserve pay increases just like everyone else.
    - jonsterling 13y ago
      Clearly you have never used a BART washroom, my friend. Though, the confusion is understandable, since BART stations tend to smell like washrooms outside the washrooms too. Tell me more about what a good job BART employees do.
      - dunham 13y ago
        BART has public washrooms? I thought they were all closed to the public. (I've only been in a handful of stations, and don't usually check out the washrooms, but I believe the montgomery street one has a sign on the door to that effect.)
        malandrew 13y ago
        I was under the impression that many of them were closed after 9-11. I was told by a BART employee that that is why the Berkeley BART bathroom has been closed for years.
        jonsterling 13y ago
        There's an open one in Rockridge BART at least. Now that I think of it, that's the only station I've been in that has a bathroom.
  - 13y ago
joyeuse6701 13y ago
Shiz, I'll take their job.
rosser 13y ago
Did you look at anything beyond the first page?
cjensen 13y ago
The top of the list is the executive staff, not the workers.
- ianb 13y ago
  The top of the list is mostly police, not executives. Go a little further down and it's police and maintenance.
scilro 13y ago
Looked up some of them, and a good number are people who've been working there since the 90s. I know that if I had the same job for 22 years, I'd expect to at LEAST be making 200k...
- malandrew 13y ago
  $200k just by virtue of working 22 years? What's the rational for that? If you do skilled labor, where you are constantly improving your skillset and becoming more productive or valuable (e.g. programming, law, custom carpentry, custom welding, nurse etc,), there is an argument for making a little to a lot more money after 22 years, but for all jobs where a novice and an experienced employee add approximately the same value there is no case for raising salary except to account for inflation.

Actually, the high salaried employees you see are people like the General Manager who refuse to personally come to the bargaining table at all, and probably approve raises for themselves. The average salary of striking workers is about $61k, and management has accepted that their current offer only results in a substantive increase of $1 over four years, after BART workers accepted a freeze four years ago to inject $100M into the system. More info: http://www.keepbartrunning.com/an_open_letter_to_the_community_from_the_bart_workers

peter_l_downs 13y ago
Try looking at one of the later pages in the document -- average salary is around 30k! I believe your numbers for sure, just wanted to offer a clean example of "no, not everyone gets paid 80k base + 120k overtime." http://imgur.com/2vfQ1qi http://imgur.com/2vfQ1qi, from http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area?Entity=Bay%20Area%20Rapid%20Transit&appSession=31916186704428&RecordID=&PageID=2&PrevPageID=2&CPIpage=1&cbJumpTo=123 http://www.mercurynews.com/salaries/bay-area?Entity=Bay%20Ar...
- tlogan 13y ago
  Ok - for car cleaning you get $55K/year (plus full benefits). Is that a lot or too little? I don't know.. nurses I know don't earn much more in Bay Area but I might be hanging out with wrong people...
  - jholman 13y ago
    Nitpick: That $55k includes benefits, actually. That's $35k base, a little OT, a few weeks of vacation, M/D/V benefits, and pension contributions. I'd call that "$35k plus full benefits" if I was summarizing. Maybe "plus great benefits" if you wanted to slant it (I dunno if those MDV costs are high or low, though). Betcha the nurses you know are making more than that.
anigbrowl 13y ago
That leave sout some pertinent information. Unlike many other employees in the private and public sector, BART employees make no pension contributions. I think a salary increase identical to a (new) mandatory pension contribution is a substantive increase, just a deferred one. There are also performance-related bonuses on offer. Average salary does not tell use a whole lot, and omits salient facts like additional earnings from overtime.
bobo13579 13y ago
The average pay for a Bay Area worker is $65K. That worker is a professional with a college degree. Why does unskilled transit work deserve so much pay?
- apineda 13y ago
  They provide a great service to people like you and I who use their transport, washrooms etc. If they were not paid well they would not do their jobs and the BART system would be in disarray. They deserve pay increases just like everyone else.
  - jonsterling 13y ago
    Clearly you have never used a BART washroom, my friend. Though, the confusion is understandable, since BART stations tend to smell like washrooms outside the washrooms too. Tell me more about what a good job BART employees do.
    - dunham 13y ago
      BART has public washrooms? I thought they were all closed to the public. (I've only been in a handful of stations, and don't usually check out the washrooms, but I believe the montgomery street one has a sign on the door to that effect.)
      - malandrew 13y ago
        I was under the impression that many of them were closed after 9-11. I was told by a BART employee that that is why the Berkeley BART bathroom has been closed for years.
        jonsterling 13y ago
        There's an open one in Rockridge BART at least. Now that I think of it, that's the only station I've been in that has a bathroom.
- 13y ago

joyeuse6701 13y ago

Shiz, I'll take their job.

rosser 13y ago

Did you look at anything beyond the first page?

cjensen 13y ago

The top of the list is the executive staff, not the workers.

ianb 13y ago
The top of the list is mostly police, not executives. Go a little further down and it's police and maintenance.

scilro 13y ago

Looked up some of them, and a good number are people who've been working there since the 90s. I know that if I had the same job for 22 years, I'd expect to at LEAST be making 200k...

malandrew 13y ago
$200k just by virtue of working 22 years? What's the rational for that? If you do skilled labor, where you are constantly improving your skillset and becoming more productive or valuable (e.g. programming, law, custom carpentry, custom welding, nurse etc,), there is an argument for making a little to a lot more money after 22 years, but for all jobs where a novice and an experienced employee add approximately the same value there is no case for raising salary except to account for inflation.