Overtime

A big stink was raised here in San Francisco this past weekend when a list of the top earners on the city payroll was released.  Of course, the stink was due to city employees earning significant overtime compensation equaling or even doubling their salaries.

The inevitable call for a "crackdown" followed, but almost everyone has missed the point.  These overtime issues are not primarily due to greedy employees, but they are due to failure of the public to understand the situation and the state of city management. 

There is a quote in the first article that the Sherriff's department "should have 868 staff members but was down 116 employees last year".  The city is saving the salary costs of 700+ employees by paying a few employees a little more in overtime.  Yes, a few people are getting egregious amounts of compensation, but they are working 16 hour days and saving the city from paying for multiple other employees.  Sounds like a net positive to me.