Seems a bit excessive to me....

DizzyLizzyNurse · Oct 28, 2011

Happens all the time with firefighters as well. Some bean counter at the top has the genius idea of just allowing existing employees to work overtime rather than take on new hires. Tell me there aren't a ton of nurses looking for work right now, especially for a job paying 80,000K a year!

I have several family members who are firefighters and one was in the paper for making about triple his salary working OT. The papers make this huge deal out of how much "the government's paying them", like they are just giving it away. Also they don't mention it's cheaper to pay someone OT and not have to pay someone a base salary and benefits. If they are so worried tell them to hire 2 more nurses.

lrobinson5 · Oct 28, 2011

I have several family members who are firefighters and one was in the paper for making about triple his salary working OT. The papers make this huge deal out of how much "the government's paying them", like they are just giving it away. Also they don't mention it's cheaper to pay someone OT and not have to pay someone a base salary and benefits. If they are so worried tell them to hire 2 more nurses.

That's where I was going with my original post. I think with the economy there will be even more stories like this one, and they pretty much all make the situation seem bad. I really want to believe that medical benefits don't cost that much, but they really are ridiculous. I knew a firefighter from a class we took together, and any overtime he was paid he earned. Just like I am sure the nurse and many of the others on the list earned. I think it is more important to see why on earth paying someone 300 grand makes more sense than hiring additional staff, but I don't like how they make the workers seems shady. The nurse or the doctor didn't do anything wrong. If you want to look at people taking advantage of the system, what about people that hire others to find every tax loophole imaginable? They aren't breaking any laws, but they are siphoning money out of the system. Where is that news article?

BuckyBadgerRN, ASN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

From Bloomberg an article:
Nurse Making $269,810 Demonstrates California Public Worker Overtime Binge
If you want to read the article use the title above as a search string in google.
A small excerpt:
"Jean Keller earned $269,810 last year working as a nurse at a men's prison on California's central coast by tripling her regular pay with overtime hours."
Consider that 30,000 teachers were fired in California last year....
And if you think that is excessive the article mentions "a prison doctor who cashed out more than $590,000 of vacation time when he retired."
I guess that doc can go on vacation permanently....
What'cha think?

Yup, that's the state system for ya!! Here in my state, your retirement pay is based on your 3 best years of salary. I know a corrections officer that for the last 3 years he worked, he set up a camper in a far corner of the prison parking lot and lived there. He routinely worked double-shifts, call-ins, volunteered for OT, took anyone's shift who would give him one and he'd grab a few hours of sleep with no driving time. Needless to say, his last 3 years were TREMENDOUSLY financially beneficial to him.

nursemichelle80, BSN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

That happened here in Florida with an LPN and now DOC nursing staff (I am an RN) cannot get ANY overtime. We are short handed and they are paying more for agency nurses than they would pay for their staff to work overtime. One nurse ruined it for all. Absurd.

42pines · Oct 28, 2011

Yup, that's the state system for ya!! Here in my state, your retirement pay is based on your 3 best years of salary. I know a corrections officer that for the last 3 years he worked, he set up a camper in a far corner of the prison parking lot and lived there. He routinely worked double-shifts, call-ins, volunteered for OT, took anyone's shift who would give him one and he'd grab a few hours of sleep with no driving time. Needless to say, his last 3 years were TREMENDOUSLY financially beneficial to him.

That's simply sickening.

Though such folk may get what's coming to them... When the money runs out, and in many states, it surely will, pensions will be cut, and possibly may be "capped." Though it's hard to fault a fellow who simply saw the rules and utilized them.

The problem of course is what happens when I (along with many others like me), with zero pension, am forced to pay extra into the system for those with golden pensions. Therein lies the seeds of at minimum, extreme discontent, and at worst a sort of rebellion or revolution.

I predict that pensions will be capped, reduced, and/or totally eliminated (this has already occurred see:

Alabama Town Stops Paying Retirees' Pensions, Some Residents Destitute

I read about this occurring elsewhere and a local, a former fire chief (I think) committed suicide, but I can no longer find that story.

This article talks about a 2 trillion shortfall in municipal/state/federal pensions:

http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/01/06/195682/the-looming-public-pension-disaster/

If there is a federal bail-out, we will pay for it in price inflation and a loaf of bread may rise to $12, or if state or municipal, there is an increasing trend to raise property taxes--which can lead to a downward spiral resulting in an exodus from that area with people simply walking away and abandoning their homes, so many of which are already under water (they owe more than the house can be sold for).

Ironically, for some, as it was in the Great Depression, life is great, and for others, it is utterly devastating.

TheSquire, DNP, APRN, NP · Oct 28, 2011

Speaking as someone who has money in a government pension, it is not my fault that:

a) I earned my pension funds by following current policies, my work contract, and the collective bargaining agreement I worked under, all while earning less than I was worth in the private sector.

b) Private sector workers, through lack of unionization, have seen their retirement benefits eroded over the past few decades.

and c) State legislatures, city councils, and the like ignored their pension obligations for decades when they knew full well that those obligations would come due.

I'm all for raiding the pensions of current and former legislators first in order to balance budgets, though - unlike rank-and-file government employees, they were the ones who had actual control over the system and caused the mess in the first place.

dudette10, MSN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

Yup, that's the state system for ya!! Here in my state, your retirement pay is based on your 3 best years of salary. I know a corrections officer that for the last 3 years he worked, he set up a camper in a far corner of the prison parking lot and lived there. He routinely worked double-shifts, call-ins, volunteered for OT, took anyone's shift who would give him one and he'd grab a few hours of sleep with no driving time. Needless to say, his last 3 years were TREMENDOUSLY financially beneficial to him.

There's a term for that: it's called pension padding. You'd be surprised how many people in state jobs do it when they are promised 75-80% of their last X years salary at retirement. If you look at the salary history of adminstrative jobs on the state level, you'll probably see a huge jump in salary the last few years before retirement. When salaries have to be voted on by other elected officials, you'll find that more than one person is complicit with this kind of scheme. "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

dudette10, MSN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

I earned my pension funds by following current policies, my work contract, and the collective bargaining agreement I worked under, all while earning less than I was worth in the private sector.

While true that the pension structures allow for it, pension padding is often a calculated move on the part of government workers. I'm not saying you did it; I don't know if you made a conscious decision to take exorbitant overtime hours prior to leaving your government job. However, it does happen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/business/economy/21pension.html?pagewanted=all

In Yonkers, more than 100 retired police officers and firefighters are collecting pensions greater than their pay when they were working. One of the youngest, Hugo Tassone, retired at 44 with a base pay of about $74,000 a year. His pension is now $101,333 a year.
It's what the system promised, said Mr. Tassone, now 47, adding that he did nothing wrong by adding lots of overtime to his base pay shortly before retiring. "I don't understand how the working guy that held up their end of the bargain became the problem," he said.

pedicurn, LPN, RN · Oct 28, 2011

That's it .... I'm moving to California !

Well done to the well paid nurse.

Lifeofanurse · Oct 29, 2011

CA has a high cost of living.

corrections is a moneymaker for nurses across the board I believe.

I'm not big enough or have enough #$%%W to do it.

I'd be scared all the time.

I say good for them.

but do agree we are in a sad state of affairs across the board.

Gas is $3.19 a gallon. Milk is $3 something..closer to $4 than 3 though.

We can't afford to feed our family no less afford healthcare.

I am completely offended that ...some of these drug companies...are able to offer their lifechanging meds (like $400 a dose) to pts at a hugely reduced rate (like $10-15 a dose)...but if your insured...they charge them the full rate. Some of these meds are a necessity for patients quality of life and mobility.

How can that be? It is the reason health insurance is so expensive.

I wonder if I'm going to ever afford a house.

If I can afford to put my kids through college...or have them saddled with loans that they won't ever be able to pay off..because of the economy as it is.

Jobs that used to pay $15-20 an hour..now pay $9-$12 (non healthcare).

I think we are in for a slow downward spiral.

We should all be worried about our future and how we will be able to care for our families not just after retirement but NOW.

DizzyLizzyNurse · Oct 29, 2011

Where I live gas is $3.65 a gallon. That's actually a decrease.

OCNRN63, RN · Oct 29, 2011

That's it........I am moving back to California and going to work for Governor Moonbeam and the Department of Corrections! I've never even gotten within shouting distance of $100,000 a year, let alone over a quarter of a mil. The only thing about this that doesn't stink on ice is the fact that the overpaid employee is a NURSE, who is undoubtedly worth more than all the politicians who authorized these outrageous salaries.
No wonder California is broke, eh?

Overpaid? Someone who worked a ton of OT and probably cashed in her PTO...overpaid? I don't think so, Tim.