Bob Calaway: Don’t be misled by those salary figures

Re “Public emploiyees make too much” (Letters, Dec. 19): The letter writer is referring to Atwater police department employees but did not mention $83,000 salaries in some medical fields, $90,000 for some pharmacists, school district superintendents earning $100,000-plus or seven positions at the federal prison averaging $81,288.

Atwater police officers have a six-year merit-pay scale from $53,847 to $68.724, plus benefits. The officers pay federal and state taxes, medical plans and other benefits and into a retirement plan. The writer said the police chief and top-paid officer combined earned “nearly $500,000” in pay and benefits. Wrong! The city manager/chief of police step one salary and approved benefits is $176,104 plus $10,000 to help facillitate the police department.

The writer said “one rank-and-file officer is compensated to the tune of $213,338. Wrong again! Pay scale and benefits for a senior officer is $89,340. His overtime is partially paid by the state of California for special traffic programs, drunk-driver checkpoints and the cross-walk safety program.

The writer said, “Employees enjoy three-day weekends every week of the year.” He did not mention that the third day off is without pay.

Editor’s note: The Sun-Star reported on Dec. 10 that the combined total pay of the most highly paid officer and the city manager equals just under $400,000.

This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 11:03 AM with the headline "Bob Calaway: Don’t be misled by those salary figures."