# What is fair pay ?



## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

For a good, hard working, man or woman that builds roads and bridges? 

Just curious if any one thinks $275 an hour is pushing it? Mind you that's the whole cost, bennies and all.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

Yea,,,, I'd say it's pushing it even if it was for the guy who owned the company.


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

That's a tough question. I'd need more info. Does this person work for the state building these roads and bridges or a private company hired by the state to do the work while the state guys, who are still getting paid, sleep in their trucks.


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

As long as you both smile when you are done - its fair pay.


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Well if it is tax payer money $400 is about fair. If a bike trail is included in the project at least $500.


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## Illini Warrior (Jan 24, 2015)

$500,000 a year for a union employee ... sounds about right


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Ripon said:


> For a good, hard working, man or woman that builds roads and bridges?
> 
> Just curious if any one thinks $275 an hour is pushing it? Mind you that's the whole cost, bennies and all.


I am not a wealthy man and I've said before..."I thought I made a good living but then realized what I couldn't buy with it"...

Having said that I have 2 clients that pay me a $300/hour consulting fee. Generally I am sitting in my home office, wearing boxer shorts and a tee shirt, barefeet up on my desk, tossing a tennis ball to my dog while on the phone with my clients. This happens only a couple times a year for about 1 hour each, so I ain't getting rich on these guys...but its a good gig. But, to answer your question, I'd ask for more to build a bridge if it was me.


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## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

I'm thinking $20 an hour would be good. With bennies and employer contributions, call it $50 max.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Who here feels good about 17000 Federal Government Employees making over 200k per year...on your tax dollars!
17,000 Federal Employees Earned More Than $200K Last Year - NationalJournal.com


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## Arklatex (May 24, 2014)

Ripon said:


> For a good, hard working, man or woman that builds roads and bridges?
> 
> Just curious if any one thinks $275 an hour is pushing it? Mind you that's the whole cost, bennies and all.


Is that how much they're gonna pay the terrorist to change their ways and earn an honest living?


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## tango (Apr 12, 2013)

If you make more than I do--- that's unfair!


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## Matt (Feb 19, 2015)

tango said:


> If you make more than I do--- that's unfair!


That should be a t-shirt. I think lots of people secretly think that.


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## jimb1972 (Nov 12, 2012)

Guess it depends on what you are bringing to the table equipment wise. If you own a crane and all the heavy equipment involved that might be reasonable.


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## Camel923 (Aug 13, 2014)

Fair in negotiations is probably both sides having to give or get less than they wanted. Somewhere in the middle. Keep in mind every job or position has a limit to what it is worth.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

Wages are contractual in nature and if that's what both sides agree upon as a fair wage then it is a fair wage.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

Ripon said:


> For a good, hard working, man or woman that builds roads and bridges?
> 
> Just curious if any one thinks $275 an hour is pushing it? Mind you that's the whole cost, bennies and all.


Too much if it is take home pay, and too much for a company to charge for their blue collar workers. just my opinion. I won't disagree with anyone that wants to disagree with me.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Other then a vote for a state legislator (which I don't have in CA any more) I have no means of engaging in that negotiation. Its between 
bureaucrats and unions.



Seneca said:


> Wages are contractual in nature and if that's what both sides agree upon as a fair wage then it is a fair wage.


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## ApexPredator (Aug 17, 2013)

You gotta decided what you think fair is and isn't before you apply it to something like wages.


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## csi-tech (Apr 13, 2013)

Holy crap! I'd do it it for $40.00 an hour until I puke. Is your decimal point in the right place?


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## jimb1972 (Nov 12, 2012)

csi-tech said:


> Holy crap! I'd do it it for $40.00 an hour until I puke. Is your decimal point in the right place?


Sounds good, but you would have to carry a lot of liability insurance for the life of the bridge. I have not studied bridge building or the immediate and long term costs associated with it, but $275 an hour could be pretty cheap.


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## tinkerhell (Oct 8, 2014)

Even at 1000s of dollars per hour, I'd only offer them a 90day limited warranty.


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## stillacitizen2 (Jan 30, 2015)

What's the job itself? Is it an operator, is it the laborer, the grade checker, surveyor, engineer, architect? I've built roads, and made NO WHERE NEAR that amount, with benefits. Our top paid journeymen (laborers) were making about $32 an hour in wages depending on the job they had, but we all had the same benefits as long as you had 500 hours in during the calendar year. But $275 an hour? I'm gonna' say not reasonable, especially if you're one of the guys on the ground.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

I did not see the job description. The topic came up about those who built the bay bridge that was way over budget and schedule. The unions that did that work have poured millions into campaigns for the high speed rail project and they just told the city of SF they need $22 million to clean up a former shooting range due it's lead deposits. I met a man in a gun trade that was a paramedic on the bay bridge job. His job was to sit in an ambulance on the job site waiting to help any injured workers. His hourly was $62.50 his comp package of benefits out the cost at $100 an hour. He told me there were guys on the equipment making closer to $400 hr and that the average was about $275.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

Ripon said:


> Other then a vote for a state legislator (which I don't have in CA any more) I have no means of engaging in that negotiation. Its between
> bureaucrats and unions.


Most state contracts are awarded by bid, usually they go with the best bid for what ever work they are having done, say building a bridge. Companies wishing to build this bridge some of which are union, submit a bid for the contract. The state or entity then decides which bid to choose.


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## Wallimiyama (Oct 18, 2012)

Bah...the CEO of the company I work for made $4500/hr last year. In my opinion...he wasn't worth $4.50/hr


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

Seneca said:


> Most state contracts are awarded by bid, usually they go with the best bid for what ever work they are having done, say building a bridge. Companies wishing to build this bridge some of which are union, submit a bid for the contract. The state or entity then decides which bid to choose.


I'm just glad there are no kickbacks or cronyism going on with these contracts.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

The employees are not on the hook for that bridge; the contractor that pays' them maybe but not the employees.



jimb1972 said:


> Sounds good, but you would have to carry a lot of liability insurance for the life of the bridge. I have not studied bridge building or the immediate and long term costs associated with it, but $275 an hour could be pretty cheap.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

Was he paid tax payer money? Was his contract negotiated with bureaucrats or share holders? What private folks do with their money is up to them, but this is public money going to private contracts. Only union represented companies can even apply and must pay prevailing wages which is how they get to these rates. Now if Owned stock in a company paying $4500 for a CEO I'd surely vote to cut his pay, but in this case we don't get such a vote.



Wallimiyama said:


> Bah...the CEO of the company I work for made $4500/hr last year. In my opinion...he wasn't worth $4.50/hr


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

No one is allowed to bid unless the employees are union covered.

2009 Stanford Business School did a study on a proposed Oakland Baseball / Football stadium that is expected to cost $1.7 billion. If they could bring in a Chinese firm and build it under Chinese rules the cost was $200 million. That included bringing them here. Tells you something about the SF Bay are construction labor rates doesn't it!



Seneca said:


> Most state contracts are awarded by bid, usually they go with the best bid for what ever work they are having done, say building a bridge. Companies wishing to build this bridge some of which are union, submit a bid for the contract. The state or entity then decides which bid to choose.


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## Suntzu (Sep 22, 2014)

Ripon said:


> I did not see the job description. The topic came up about those who built the bay bridge that was way over budget and schedule. The unions that did that work have poured millions into campaigns for the high speed rail project and they just told the city of SF they need $22 million to clean up a former shooting range due it's lead deposits. I met a man in a gun trade that was a paramedic on the bay bridge job. His job was to sit in an ambulance on the job site waiting to help any injured workers. His hourly was $62.50 his comp package of benefits out the cost at $100 an hour. He told me there were guys on the equipment making closer to $400 hr and that the average was about $275.


Someone is pulling your leg. $275 an hour comes out to over a half million a year. No union laborer, even in union-utopia SF, makes 275 an hour.


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## Ripon (Dec 22, 2012)

It was related to me that was the total compensation; including benefits, paid time off, health care, retirement, life insurance, the list will go on and on.



Suntzu said:


> Someone is pulling your leg. $275 an hour comes out to over a half million a year. No union laborer, even in union-utopia SF, makes 275 an hour.


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## Wallimiyama (Oct 18, 2012)

Board of Directors = Good Ole' Boy club. One big circle jerk that ensures they all get filthy rich...employees and shareholders be damned.


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## ekim (Dec 28, 2012)

IMO, fair pay is what ever you can get for the job you can / are willing to do. Gender has nothing to do with it as you have to agree to work for the pay they offer. If it's not enough you don't have to accept the job, if you do accept it then shut up and do what you agreed to work for!


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