Nice work, if you can get it!

Here’s an article from the local Daily Herald, on the new contract for the toll collectors in Illinois.

SEIU represents 569 workers, mostly toll collectors as well as janitors.

The union ratified the tentative agreement Sept. 12, which allows for raises of 3 percent in 2015, and 2.5 percent in 2016 and 2017. The average salary is $48,000.

In what world do toll collectors merit $48,000 per year, for sitting in a toll booth and collecting coins all day?  For that matter, back when Illinois transitioned to mostly open-road tolling, the toll collectors’ union was demanding that no jobs be lost due to the transition, so maybe these workers aren’t even sitting in toll booths, but just marking time until retirement age.

Is it possible that the average pay is really for all tollway employees, including professionals?  I went to the tollway website to see what I could find out, without any success, except that there was a nice set of reports on their affirmative action goals, in which you can read about the fact that, although they hire a more-than-proportionate number of black employees, they’re heavily concentrated in the lower ranks.

But then — bingo! — here it is, a listing of the salaries of all toll collectors.  This is astonishing — the higher paid toll collectors earn $60,000 a year, most at least $40K.  Please correct me if I’m missing some level of skill or responsibility.

And this is a really interesting site, because you can view the pay of all state employees.  Toll collectors earn more than “Motor Vehicle Cashiers,” for instance (though it’s not possible to do the math in any accurate way because they don’t distinguish between full- and part-time and mid-year hires).

Oooh, I just clicked another link:  you can also view average pay by job classification.  Accountants make, on average, $51,000.  Electricians $80,000.  Janitors $50,000.  Secretary $33,000.  The listing is endless, and one wonders how many of these occupations are paid at a market rate, and how many benefit from powerful unions.

On the other hand, seasonal toll collectors, hired for just the summer and early fall, are paid only $10 per hour, according to this news report.  Perhaps this is simply an extreme example of the two-tier workforce in action?

So, wow — Your Government At Work, as they say.  And, yes, if we could leave Illinois without it being a major disruption to our family, we would.