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The Sacramento Bee reports that the labor contract between California state government and the 2,800 employees represented by California Association of Professional Scientists expired this week, spotlighting yet again the long-running feud over whether the tiny union's members should earn as much as their peers in federal and local governments and private industry. "It's a challenge to keep people motivated," says Rita Hypnarowski. "We talk about retaining the best and the brightest, but I can see that's not going to happen." A recent survey by the Brown administration found that the total compensation for half of state-employed chemists is less than $8,985 per month. That's 33 percent less than the median total compensation for federal chemists, nearly 13 percent less than the midpoint for local-government chemists and almost 6 percent below the private sector.
Members of the union perform a wide variety of tasks, everything from fighting food-borne illnesses to mopping up the Refugio State Beach oil spill. For example Cassandra McQuaid left a job last year at the Department of Public Health's state-of-the-art Richmond laboratories where she tracked foodborne illnesses. It's the kind of vital, behind-the-scenes work that goes unnoticed until an E. coli outbreak makes headlines and local health officials need a crack team of scientists to unravel how it happened. "It really came down to money," says McQuaid. "I just couldn't live in the Bay Area on a state salary."
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JeanCroix on Thursday July 02 2015, @03:50PM
(Score: 2) by tibman on Thursday July 02 2015, @05:59PM
Six figures in the midwest is probably living in the top 10% too. That's quite a difference.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 02 2015, @06:33PM
We are at $170K/year in Florida, which puts us at more than 3x the median household income (49K). I received an offer for ~100K in LA, CA, which amounts to a 17% pay cut (I make 90K).
Six figures is still ballin' in some places, but not Southern California.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday July 02 2015, @08:35PM
Cant tell if troll.
Which suburb are you talking about, rancho santa fe? Beachfront la jolla or del mar? You can live comfortably in pretty much every other suburb with six figs.
My rule of thumb is that if its mostly Jews and Catholics, well duh, of course you have to be loaded to be comfortable there. And if you're willing to live in ramona/fallbrook you can live like a king and on a decent plot of land.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Friday July 03 2015, @01:43AM