Commentary: Salaries in Our Beloved Florida; Focusing on Miami-Dade

By Alejandro Arce

It is amazing to open the newspaper and be attacked by the information regarding the salaries in Florida, especially from places that are in financial difficulties or close to bankruptcy.

Not long ago, the Jackson Memorial Hospital, a place in a financial disgrace decided to correct the irregularities and hired a new Director or Manager (in the Miami Area the use of titles is comparable to the ones in Cuba), with the difference that here you don’t have to be a prominent member of a political party, you just have to know someone and there you go to the top. The new Director was offered a salary a bit lower than one million dollars per year.

Is it almost twice that of the President of the United States of America’s salary?

But, will the new Director have such special abilities as to tackle the Hospital problems?  Then, will he indeed be able to solve the many irregularities, and why were such irregularities allowed to happen in the first place?

It is a well known fact that our universities are creating a system of financial discrimination since even middle class people cannot afford to follow his/her inclinations and study even the, generally speaking, entrance courses, such as Political Sciences, English, and other educational subjects that will enable one to peruse a career when one finishes accommodating to the school life (including the amount of beer and socializing) and then start to study something that will provide an acceptable living.

The problem is that when, and if one finishes the university studies, the debt from the educational loans will be so magnificent that, let’s say:

You are hired, having a bachelor’s degree, for a job that pays 50 K/year (if you are so lucky), but then, your debt will be about 40K each year for 4 years or about 200K, total including other expenses. In the meantime you have not been making any money and you will be thinking about formalizing your life by . . . getting married to your sweetheart.

And how are you going to support the new family when you have to pay for the educational loan?

So, why not to stay in the school (I would like to use the term University) and hope that, as time goes by you will become a professor and . . . If you have the right connections you could make a salary on a par with the President of the country or any one of the Secretaries.  Of course, you may not be able to travel around the world, but with 1/2 million dollars pay (as per the news) who cares.

Every Miamian, including the many politicians, such as mayors, councilmen, the city managers, (a position not elected by popular vote but with, perhaps more power than the mayor or any elected commissioner (MY LORD , DO WE HAVE COMMISSIONERS) SO ANYONE CAN, VERY EASILY, OBTAIN THE SCHEDULE OF SALARIES THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PAYS TO THEIR EMPLOYEES. It will not be difficult to use such schedule as a guide for the purpose of assigning salaries of the Miami government employees.  I have provided such schedule to many of the officials of the Miami Area.

In the Federal Government, the requirements to earn a high salary, let’s say close to 200K (the top GS salary) it is required to have high educational degree or, in a very few cases to have 4 years of experience per the equivalent of one year of university education.  This equivalency requires taking related courses, attending related seminars, and all types of special education.

I wonder how many doctors or Ph. Ds we have in the many Miami Area governments?

BONUSES AND PENSIONS

It has been explained that in Miami the retirement pensions are derived based in the highest yearly salaries of the employee during their term of employment, even when such salaries include overtime paid to arrive to the high retirement based pay.

In the Federal Government:

YOU USE IT OR LOSE IT.  You don’t accumulate time to be used to figure your retirement.

The bonuses paid in Miami are so attractive that upon retirement, again as per the news, regular employees have retired with bonuses of a large magnitude, EVEN WHEN THEY WERE FIRED.
Also many return to work accumulating another whole salary. Well, like I say if a person desires to get a succulent salary, come to Miami, but remember,

YOU HAVE TO BE PART OF THE GROUP.  It also will help to have a Spanish surname, as far as I can read in the news. The whole business reminds me of the famous Mexican re-fried beans

At the end, the taxpayers will front the expenses but we are protected by so many authorities and besides that, we have the beautiful, unique beach. But, was the beach made by the politicians or was it?

The author is an independent columnist. The opinions expressed in this column are his own and not those of the publication or its Editors and owners.

Category: CITY, EDITORIAL, SPEAK YOUR MIND