I don't know, an officers job does suck as you're dealing with degenerates all the time but it seems kind of high to me. N.J. police salaries rank highest in nation with median pay of $90,672 http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/09/nj_police_salaries_rank_highes.html
Public servants are our new masters, havent you heard? I cant wait until there are no stones to squeeze...
Good question. I ask myself..."would I take that job?" If I had to work on the streets chasing down criminals 8 hours per day...I think there is a good chance that $90k is not enough for me. If i was working at the station doing paperwork, then $90k is plenty for me. Spending my time with the scum of society is not something I would enjoy doing and it would likely affect my mood. Ever see a happy cop? Not very often. They spend so much time around criminals they forget how to smile. 90k is probably fair but i guess it depends on the person.
Well it wasn't too high during the boom years, when realtors, construction workers, and plumbers were making similar. But now? Yea it needs to adjust. Good luck adjusting it with the unions.
Find me somebody who'll confess that they're over paid? "Chasing criminals 8 hours a day" ...hilarious.
There's a simple test to determine if these jobs are overpaid or not and it has nothing to do with assessing the "fairness" of the compensation or evaluating how desirable the job might be. How difficult is it to fill these jobs? If they are underpaid, it should be very hard to get qualified applicants. Is that the case, or, as I suspect and as is the case most places, is it extremely difficult to get one of these jobs?
You are forgetting that the degree of "need" for policemen is very, very subjective. "Enough" is debatable, depending on who you ask.
A public servant earning a living off of other people taxes should be making no more than whatever the nations avg worker makes. This world is upside fucking down when private tax payers are guaranteed nothing but pain on the way to retirement at 60 if they are lucky. And govt/state/county workers are whistling dixie at age 45-50 with a pension and free healthcare. Its a joke and its a govt spending bubble. Just say no too leeches.
Thats not a very accurate test because there are other variables in that job that are not accounted for like recognition. When we were all kids, there were 3 or 4 jobs that got recognition from all of us. When teachers asked us what we wanted to be, we pretty much all had the same answers...policeman, fireman, and teacher. You will notice that in these 3 professions there are many volunteers that do the work for free and do it just for the recognition. I think its ingrained in our minds from when we were all 5 years old. Most of us grew out of it, but there are still many that did not grow out of it and still think like 5 year olds and remember that praise they got from parents/teacher when they said they wanted to be a policeman when they grow up. Its like many people still look for that praise, which means they will take less money as long as they get the praise which could be considered a form of compensation.