This post is comparing the income for one Bart employee to the expenses for a family of four. I'm not sure why child care is included if only one adult is working.
Subtracting those out, I get $54,912. This seems about right for a frugal life in the burbs.
[1] http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-workers-pay-plus-...
To account for my uncertainty, I built in a "Custom" option in the dropdowns, so you can play around with what you think is a fair cost of living for a BART employee, and how those numbers compare to their salaries and the proposal figures.
More than these peasants deserve, right? I mean, why should people providing a vital service to a city feel entitled to live amongst the betters they serve?
I mean, when we remove scarcity, sure, give all the BART workers mansions. But until then, I think this is a fine wage for doing work that's on the block for being automated in ten or twenty years.
Go get a job as a BART driver. Report back how unskilled and replaceable they are. And report your salary. It'll be lower than you're expecting. All the numbers you're being fed (including the ones on the linked page) are misleading unless you actually consider them from the perspective of a BART employee progressing through his career from the beginning.
It is not exactly a revelation that people just starting out in a career get paid less than experienced folks, especially in labor markets controlled by unions.
Then what makes you think you can argue they're overpaid?
> If you want to explain why you think Bart driving is skilled, hard to replace labor
I know absolutely no one who has not gone through significant training who I would trust at the controls of a huge vehicle like a bus or train. I also don't know many people who want to drive around at night alone picking strangers up.
> I know absolutely no one ...
How many people do you know who only have a high school diploma? Who have no other options that pay more than $60k/year?
> How many people do you know who only have a high school diploma?
My parents, all my grandparents, most of my aunts and uncles, most of my cousins. I would say "me", but that would be a lie, because I don't even have a high school diploma. Not sure about friends and acquaintances. Most of them are tech workers, so formal education rarely comes up.
> Who have no other options that pay more than $60k/year?
Lots of the people I mention, including myself, make or have in the past made more than $60k/year (at least inflation-adjusted).
Pieces of paper from a broken educational system are not determinant of how much someone can or should make.
> Pieces of paper from a broken educational system are not determinant of how much someone can or should make.
Certainly agree with that. The demand for the work you can do and your ability to do the work with quality should be the main determinants. So I guess we'll see how much the city is willing to pay, and how far the BART workers are willing to push them before they just get replaced. Our discussion on the matter is kind of a non-factor.
You're free to stop talking about anything you want at any time.
"Way above average"? "over-market"? Are you adjusting for cost of living in your guess or not?
No kidding, this is highly skilled labor we're talking about. Not to mention the years of schooling and study required to excel at the profession. These jobs aren't easy to fill.
Ps Luton is the Uni that props up the bottom of the university league tables in the UK
You have no idea what "frugal" means.