Picking up trash can earn you up to $300K in NYC
The salaries of some New York City sanitation workers have approached $300,000 due to staffing issues and massive overtime pay, which a spokesperson chalked up in part to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Over 90 garbage collectors and others working for the city’s Sanitation Department are seeing a massive windfall this year thanks to six-figure overtime compensation, according to a report from the New York Post.
A department representative said the major city payouts are the result of staff shortages, the Covid-19 pandemic, and massive snow storms hitting the city. Many of those who received pay bumps have been retirement-age supervisors, the report notes.
One Bronx supervisor named in the report earned over $170,000 in overtime, bringing his pay to nearly $300,000 for the year. He has worked for the city since 2000. Another supervisor from Brooklyn, meanwhile, reportedly earned over $160,000 in overtime pay, bringing his total for the year to nearly $300,000 as well.
The commissioner of the Department of Sanitation, by comparison, has a base salary of $243,000.
According to the think tank Empire Center for Public Policy, the jump in overtime pay for the Department of Sanitation (from $151 million for fiscal year 2020 to $283 million last year) is the highest jump for any city department.
Harry Nespoli, head of the Uniformed Sanitation’s Association, also said there was a hiring freeze for a year, leading to a lot of work with not a lot of people to do it.
“They didn’t hire nobody (sic) during the pandemic because there was a hiring freeze,” he said. “The garbage needs to be picked up.”
