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by kornakiewicz 2438 days ago
> but your pay is roughly correlated with the value of your labour.

It is not. The value fire-fighters, teachers or nurses provide is much higher than, say, an enterprise developer, yet in most places the other earns more.
5 comments
pkaye 2438 days ago
Some of those people do make a pretty good salary in California though. For example in Oakland, the Fire Department Captain makes $472k/year. https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2018/oakland/
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SlowRobotAhead 2438 days ago
How many positions for Oakland Dept Fire Captain are there? I’m in the market.
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dbancajas 2438 days ago
Even regular police officers on that page earn 350K! damn am in the wrong industry.
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pkaye 2438 days ago
Police jobs have some risks but there are a few engineering jobs there which are not too bad. And the guaranteed pension is the icing on top.
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Fernicia 2438 days ago
It's marginal utility, not labour value or labour usefulness that determines wage price. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_value
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strken 2438 days ago
What's the marginal value of hiring another fire-fighter? I suspect it's a lot lower than the marginal value of hiring another enterprise developer, since firefighting is already fairly well staffed and since hiring professionals cuts into volunteering firefighting organisations.

The same seems like it's true of teachers and nurses. They're seen as a cost centre to be reduced rather than a scarce resource to be fought over.

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scarejunba 2438 days ago
Your premise is not unquestionable. On what is your value claim based?
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sjg007 2438 days ago
Firefighters can make bank.. overtime and all that. Teachers are underpaid and nurses are probably too but they too can do well working overtime etc...
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Jiig 2438 days ago
There is something seriously wrong the with the idea that its ok to underpay these very important jobs because they can eek out a living wage by working every hour of their waking life, sacrificing mental and physical health to do so.
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monocasa 2438 days ago
Firefighters and teachers are normally overtime exempt salary.

And it's not really fair to nurses to say "you only get a fair wage if you're putting in 60-80 hours". It's also not fair to their patients, as care quality drops pretty hard when you over work nurses and doctors.

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sjg007 2438 days ago
Firefighters get both salary and overtime. So do cops. Benefit of having a union.
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monocasa 2438 days ago
Depends heavily on the district.
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