Meet The Los Angeles Firefighter Who Earned $300,000 In Overtime...By Working More Hours Than There Are In A Year

Firefighter Donn Thompson of Los Angeles earned some $300,000 in overtime in 2017, aside from his $92,000 salary. If that sounds like a lot of money in overtime, it is. In fact, as Transparent California reports, Thompson has pulled down $1 million in overtime since 2013. Eric Boehm of Reason.com explains:

Here's how the math breaks down. Thompson, like all firefighters in Los Angeles, works 2,912 hours every year. With a base salary of $92,000, that comes to an hourly rate of $31.60. That means Thompson would earn overtime pay at a rate of $47.40 per hour—that's one and a half times the base rate. But earning $302,000 at a rate of $47.40 per hour would require working more than 6,370 hours. 

Add that to the 2,912 hours he worked as a salaried employee, and you get more than 9,280 hours worked, despite the fact that there are only 8,760 hours in a year.

 This is what happens when a state is governed by unions, as California is: California unions elect public officials, who then sign rich contracts with the unions, who then elect public officials. The cycle creates debt and serious safety problems as well — if public employee unions strike, that’s a disaster area. We can love our firefighters, but these deals are destroying localities.

DYI:  This goes far deeper than public unions running the State of California – and many other States – it is institutionalizing FRAUD.  And it is not just among firefighters pulling these capers it is police and sheriff officers and school teachers.  Ever wonder why these three professions work diligently in convincing the American public they are akin to sainthood and Mom’s apple pie with a bit of flag waving thrown in as well?  When you have an overblown pay and benefits significantly greater than the general tax paying public as a group you better bill yourselves something akin to sainthood to deflect public scrutiny and examination.  

Mathematics and the economy are a self correcting mechanism these pensions are nothing more than house of cards Ponzi schemes and when the next recession hits we will see other round of city bankruptcies.  I see zero reform occurring politically unless motivated by outright bankruptcy.

DYI