The Annual Star Tribune Overtime Article

Ah yes, time for the annual Star Tribune overtime article where us public employees earnings are aired for all to see.

There are two parts to this expose. If you click on:

Explore overtime pay for metro area public employees

You can type in the name of yourself, or your favorite Sheriff's Office employee and get a 5 year total of their overtime income and what percentage of their total income the overtime amounted to, as well as their gross wages for 5 years.. For instance I made $57,000 in overtime over the last 5 years which amounted to about 15.4% of my income according to the Star Tribune. 

The comments in this section are priceless:

Supervon2 says, This is structured by the Unions so their top brass gets the most out of the deal. The Star should show who the highest earners and surprise! They will turn out to be the Union power brokers.

Ah yes, those infamous Union power brokers! Hey dipshit, I mean Supervon2, the overtime is the result of Department of Corrections minimum staffing levels. The more inmates in custody, the more staff MUST by law, be there to deal with them. This isn't Belarus! If there are duty stations that must be filled, they are filled with overtime. If someone doesn't volunteer, someone is FORCED to fill it. Therefore ALL overtime is MANDATORY.  If employee A doesn't sign up for it, they or employee B will be forced. At the end of the year no matter how much or how little overtime was worked by one person, the taxpayer will have covered the same amount of hours that year. Quit making employees who volunteer to work longer hours at a dangerous job look like thieves. By the way, it is common to be forced to stay several times a week. Thought you were going to your kid's game or going to that movie? Think again. Your 8 hour shift just became a 12, and you can't leave until you are relieved, so it might get even longer.

jbpaper says, The Strib should do a story on how the overtime effects their pensions and what that will cost the taxpayers in the long run. 

I can answer that. It's like most things in life. The more we earn the more we PAY IN! Like Social Security or a 401K, therefore the more we get out. You wouldn't suggest the State take the extra money we pay into our pension would you? Would you? 

The other article you can click on is:

Overtime costs soaring at Twin Cities agencies as they struggle toward full employment

This article is an overview of the metro Sheriff's Offices and their various amounts of overtime. Some excerpts of interest are:

Excluding undercover officers, the Star Tribune found that overtime payments in Hennepin County nearly doubled from $2.3 million in 2010, when it accounted for 5 percent of the payroll, to more than $4.5 million in 2014, when it accounted for 9 percent.

The Hennepin County Board has criticized Stanek for his rising overtime bills and hired a consultant from California for $100,000 to analyze personnel spending, which accounts for about 80 percent of the sheriff’s budget. The analyst’s report is due in September.

Let me make a couple of observations. We endured 5 years of wage freezes during the great recession. The cost of living went up, wages did not. How does a wage earner support their family? The American way, we work more hours. 

During that time Hennepin County Detention Deputies fell to the lowest wages in our job class in the seven county metro area. When the job market opened up, people left for better paying jobs. As people left, shortages occurred which had to be filled with overtime! That is not rocket science.

What's really fun is to go to Data Mine and type in the name of your favorite high up elected official and see how their salaries went up. For Instance Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek's salary over the same 5 year period covered by the Star Tribune (2010-2014), went from $149,483 to $158,905. That's salary, not wages and overtime.  

The County Commissioners had more modest raises over that period. Hennepin County Commissioner Mike Opat went from $97.194 to $104, 703.

The biggest winners by far were the  Minnesota State Commissioners. They got between 20 and 30%  raises this year! 

Unlike us jailers who earn higher wages with grueling 12 hour shifts, the politicians and their cohorts got big raises for putting in the exact amount of time they always have. 

So Supervon2, you just keep looking for the evil Union power brokers and at the men and women putting in long hours, while the people you elect, and the people they appoint, laugh all the way to the bank.