I like the asphalt helper with tomato sauce and the curly noodles.

cretinbob: baka-san: Alas, this is not news to me...

/EMT
//Yeah, we get treated like crap

This
Yet it's one of the most important jobs there is and just watch out if you fark up

Plenty more people want the job, quit if you don't like the pay. farking useless union members/government employees.

Supply and demand, how does it work?

/When it's 120 hours, on average, for EMT training and 1,000 hours for paramedic, the barrier to entry is laughably low.

ZAZ: derpderpUNIONSderderpGOVERNMENTderpderp

So stupid so early.

I'm sure this "salary" is benefits, insurance, retirement and everything conbined, but let the hate for the working man continue.

Bigdogdaddy: I'm sure this "salary" is benefits, insurance, retirement and everything conbined

LOL

TsarTom: Ok, I'll bite. Wtf is an asphalt helper?

Having been a driver on a tri-axle delivering asphalt, I'm guessing an asphalt helper is the guy that rakes the asphalt and smooths the edges prior to the leveler driving over it.

Chariset: Are asphalt helpers the ones who scrape the remains of the stockbrokers off the sidewalk?

Maybe they're the ones who pull you out when you get buried under a load of hot asphalt (new window)?

ADAMCYZK JR, JAN Job Title: BOOTER- PARKING

You're dead, man. Just pick up and get outta town, tonight. Don't tell anyone where you're going, and don't ever come back to Chicago.

I just had an asphalt helper seal my driveway last week...

A lot of these salaries look suspicious. Some of the jobs look like "make a job for patronage" kind of positions. But Chicagoans are so used to the corruption that most will swallow this with no complaint. Mayor Emanuel knows this or the list would not have been published.

Yeah well, who complains more? A few dead people or your average city driver?

You do the math.

/well go on, do it.

Emanuel said putting the information on the Web is part of his promise of "open, accountable and transparent government." The salary list includes $81,000 for a "water rate taker" in the water department, $96,000 for a civil engineer, nearly $68,000 for a police officer and $70,000 for a truck driver.

Is this salary, or does it include overtime?

If there's enough overtime and the guys are willing to work it they can easily rack up 70k on a 35k base wage.

Only three city employees make more than $200k, I would have expected more than that in a city that size.

hardinparamedic: ghare: cretinbob: baka-san: Alas, this is not news to me...

/EMT
//Yeah, we get treated like crap

This
Yet it's one of the most important jobs there is and just watch out if you fark up

Plenty more people want the job, quit if you don't like the pay. farking useless union members/government employees.

Most EMTs and Paramedics in the United States are actually volunteer, private or third service employees, and only about 10 - 15% are Union. But way to go with that righteous indignation, though.



We're not talking national averages, we're talking Chicago.


/suspects that more than 15% of Chicago's employees are unionized

Mr. Right: A lot of these salaries look suspicious. Some of the jobs look like "make a job for patronage" kind of positions. But Chicagoans are so used to the corruption that most will swallow this with no complaint. Mayor Emanuel knows this or the list would not have been published.

Exactamundo. North Carolina put salaries online two years ago and the result was - zip. The DOT is still filled with patronage jobs, the DPI is still filled with six-figure jobs for "consultants," and the executive staff for the governor's office continues to grow.

Meanwhile, the chumps, er, citizens of NC continue to pull that straight-party lever in the voting booth while complaining about the corruption.

/NC, the new New Jersey

hardinparamedic-
Explain to me why paramedics in my city need to be on par with specialized nurses or even doctors. We only provide emergency care and are no more than 10 minutes from a hospital at any point in the city. You may want to do surgery right there in the bus; I'm more interested in providing emergency care quickly and clearing the call so I'm ready for the one that is surely heading my way.

My department only runs a BLS service, so I nor my local have a dog in this fight. I can see the benefit for advanced training for medics in the boonies who have long hauls to a hospital, flight medics, or private service employees that are doing long transfers for people with severe medical issues. But the medics provided by the hospital? They have the time to attach their leads and start a line by the time we're backing in at the ED.

Harry Freakstorm: From the Illinois Employment Guide

Asphalt Helpers provide a valuable service to the transportation infrastructure in the Chicago area. They are responsible for counseling asphalt and convincing the product that is a valuable asset to the modern highway.

During the Chicago highway/tollway building boom of the late 1950s and 1960s, asphalt producers could not deploy enough asphalt to meet demands. It was not that there wasn't plenty of asphalt, it was that sometimes the product would refuse to leave the truck and apply itself to the road. A need for an Asphalt Helper was quickly developed using a taxpayer funded referendum and the needs of a growing highway infrastructure was quickly met.

An Asphalt Helper must have excellent communication skills and be able to work out door in most weather. He or she should be responsible, knowledgeable and at least a third cousin to a person connected politically to any of the six top Chicago families. A person who has or had at least one Daley show up at their family reunion will be especially attractive to employers.

The pay level of the Asphalt Helper is considered very good though some of the income may be kicked back to a campaign or war chest. The pay is only slightly lower that a Chicago Roadside Traffic Sign Holder Assistant but in spite of this, the Asphalt Helper is expected to show up for work once or twice a week (exemptions during election seasons apply).

Thank you for your valuable research. I feel so enlightened now! And to think, I almost dismissed Asphalt Helper as a non-essential, patronage job.

/Hanging head in shame that I would think ill of any job the machine in Chicago has created.

So that's why they rip up the streets every two years...to keep these peoples jobs valid. I see.

Having lived in Chicago for many years, I can tell you that the $70,000 "asphalt helper" is not exactly living the dream, assuming he actually works when on the job.

And if he has a family and kids to support he is certainly not making enough money to live comfortably in Chicago.

Have you people ever actually dealt with asphalt? I earn less than half that currently and wouldn't do it for twice that. Christ. When did Republican outrage turn into ivory tower anti-work dick sucking?

Meanwhile, in the private sector, "asphalt helpers" earn about $8 per hour.

I was going to compare to teachers salaries, but they are not on the list. Apparently, no teachers work for the city.

*waits patiently for Asphalt Helper shoop*

freewill:
LowbrowDeluxe: Have you people ever actually dealt with asphalt? I earn less than half that currently and wouldn't do it for twice that. Christ. When did Republican outrage turn into ivory tower anti-work dick sucking?

I don't know. Would you give CPR to an addict in a dark alley at 3 AM for that?

Anywhere from 0 to 10 high stress, short(ish) duration situations per day over the course of 3 twelve hour shifts a week?

Or spreading of burning hot tar in the summer heat for 8 hours a day 5 days a week hoping today isn't the day Soccer Mom Susie is applying her makeup while taking the turn and takes you out instead?

I'd like to just be snarky, but I'll admit I don't much care for high stress, which is why I'm more than happy to be earning less working for myself currently. Still and all, I'd probably take the EMT job in a heartbeat. Much as I dislike stress, I hate heat, and especially hate ending every day and every week feeling like I've been worked over by two-by-fours. I've done rooftop work and probably wouldn't go back to it if it paid plumber wages rather than illegal landscaping wages, if anyone actually did hot tar or torch down work anymore I wouldn't go back to it if..if..if Melissa Joan Hart offered to rub my tummy and say witty lines from Clarissa to me in between shifts.

Speaking of tummies, if you've never worked 8 hours in a 120 degree uncooled, stuffy, wood frame and hellfire insulation renovation site, allow me to acquaint you with the agony of having the first few weeks of hard summer turning your bowels to water. It feels oddly like someone shoved a large fork into your guts and started twirling them like spaghetti, even after you've emptied out enough that downing bottle after bottle of water can't keep up. But not for the whole day. When you get to the job site at 6:30 to 7:00 it's only 85-90 degrees in there. You have at least till 9 o'clock, maybe 10' before it turns into a third world torture chamber.

freewill: LowbrowDeluxe: Anywhere from 0 to 10 high stress, short(ish) duration situations per day over the course of 3 twelve hour shifts a week?

Or spreading of burning hot tar in the summer heat for 8 hours a day 5 days a week hoping today isn't the day Soccer Mom Susie is applying her makeup while taking the turn and takes you out instead?

I don't know, I can see it being a toss-up. As an EMT, if you screw up, you can easily farking kill people, and as someone whose pretty familiar with Chicago, you'd have a hard time convincing me to take a job whose description is "close contact with random strangers in the middle of the night", especially given what I imagine has to be a significant selection bias towards the city's least healthy residents/most unfriendly neighborhoods. It's a great city, but it's not Mayberry.

However, I also don't think an "asphalt helper" involves much by way of specialized skills, which is probably where the surprise at them receiving higher pay comes from. From what I understand, becoming an EMT requires some noteworthy certification and schooling with examinations. By comparison, becoming an asphalt helper requires a driver's license and "one year of work experience with pavement".

I'm just not seeing the overtly "anti-work" part, I guess.

I agree that it's kind of a toss up, but given the toss up, I'd take the one that is valued as a person and a supposedly skilled position over the terrible conditions day in and day out of dealing with asphalt.

"Hi fellow bar patron. I'm an EMT. I guess that means I'm kind of a hero. What's that? You're experiencing a panty emergency even as we speak?" as opposed to too tired to do anything but finish off a beer and fall asleep and a rare outing that results in, "That smell? That's progress, baby. Also, turpentine. It's the only thing that cuts the stench of asphalt and lets me sleep. Oh, um...well, bye."

There are dozens of minimally skilled labor jobs that few people want to do. Working with asphalt is only beat by being a boiler animal as far as I'm concerned for jobs that no one with a working cardiovascular system should ever consider. A dry wall/sheet rock guy can earn 50k by being willing to find enough work. It's not fun inside a vacant renovation as I said before, but it beats being under the sun standing next to and bending over hot asphalt all day. And that's not a union job by far. 80k? Psh. The only people who complain about that are 30k office workers who think their job is *so* hard. Straight up, I'm one of them now and more than happy for the pay cut. Especially to have taken it before I reach 40 and the mounting crippling agonies that tend to start piling up on old construction guys. I've seen independent contractors, no retirement, no benefits, working longer and longer hours as the pain slows them more and more, and builds faster and faster, just trying to break even. Or roofing guys who spend 10 years doing it without a problem, even after a fall or two and broken limbs, and then one day suddenly gut-tearing fear every time they go up, and they can't afford to switch jobs because it's all they have experience with, and they took it in the first place because it was one of the only things that paid well enough to support their family.

/Chipping out dried concrete from the truck at the end of the day also sucks, but at least that's only a half-hour or so.

hardinparamedic: That's the IAFF's fault.

Don't forget volunteers. I think one of the scariest things I've ever read was the preface to the 1994 NSC for EMT-B where they stated that 110 hours (most courses do go a little past it, but it takes a lot of extra hours at 110 to get past, "meh" stage) was the goal for the length of the course.

/medical student
//worked as an EMT during undergrad and grad school.

I've been an EMT for 10 years, and I can relate to the poor construction workers out there who feel their bodies falling apart... Lifting injuries and stress-related illness are incredibly common in my field, and 10 years have left me with quite a collection of orthopedic injuries. We work in terrible conditions as well...

Unfortunately because our hourly pay tends to be so low we're forced to work a lot of hours in order to make a decent living. So that EMT caring for your loved one may have been working for 36 hours straight. Hell, I've frequently worked 48 hours in a row just to make ends meet. Now that I have enough seniority I'm only scheduled to work 4 12 hour shifts a week, but I get held over by an hour or two almost every shift. I work in a very busy metropolitan area and I often go through the day with no break at all.

I'm lucky to have found a good niche in ems; I work on a Critical Care rig. My patients are generally extremely ill, but I no longer have to deal with the danger of assault from belligerent drunks and psych patients.

Could you throw just anybody on my ambulance and expect them to do my job as well as I do? Who knows? I can tell you that I've devoted my life to providing skilled, timely care to my patients and their loved ones. I've been a fierce patient advocate, I've translated medical jargon for frightened families, I've held hands with folks who were lost and alone. The job, done well, is so much more than keeping a spotless ambulance and getting a patient safely from point A to point B.

I love being an EMT. I took a huge pay cut when I entered the field, and my long hours have been hard on my family, but I'm going to be out there caring for people as long as my body can take the beating. Do I deserve decent hours and a living wage? Hell yes, I do. But I'll keep at it anyway because I love it.

I'd be willing to wager that every single person on here has it pretty good. Really.

freewill: I don't know, I can see it being a toss-up. As an EMT, if you screw up, you can easily farking kill people, and as someone whose pretty familiar with Chicago, you'd have a hard time convincing me to take a job whose description is "close contact with random strangers in the middle of the night", especially given what I imagine has to be a significant selection bias towards the city's least healthy residents/most unfriendly neighborhoods. It's a great city, but it's not Mayberry.

However, I also don't think an "asphalt helper" involves much by way of specialized skills, which is probably where the surprise at them receiving higher pay comes from. From what I understand, becoming an EMT requires some noteworthy certification and schooling with examinations. By comparison, becoming an asphalt helper requires a driver's license and "one year of work experience with pavement".

But its some asphalt helpers earned more then some EMTs. Not the average asphalt helpers compared to the average EMT, nor a comparison of base pay or a comparison of top earners for both.

We're likely comparing a few asphalt helpers who never turn down overtime with the base pay of an EMT who never opts to work overtime, and yes if you work twenty hours extra at time and a half every week you'll probably earn a pretty chunk of change. Further it will probably be worth it to the employer because they don't have to pay for an additional persons benefits.

LowbrowDeluxe: Have you people ever actually dealt with asphalt? I earn less than half that currently and wouldn't do it for twice that. Christ. When did Republican outrage turn into ivory tower anti-work dick sucking?

I thought it always had been.

Prank Call of Cthulhu: Bigdogdaddy: I'm sure this "salary" is benefits, insurance, retirement and everything conbined

LOL

Prove it isn't? My company claims all my benifits bring my compensation to almost 3 times what I get paid. They're not, but the way the do accountin today is really suspect.