pay

2012-10-05: Chief executives of the typical public sector toll operations in America seem to be paid somewhere in the range $150k to $350k per year. We thought it was hilarious when some newspapers in the Delaware Valley reported the $175k paid to Frank McCartney as CEO of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Authority (DRJTBC) as some kind of scandalous overpayment.

There can't be many managers in the toll business with salaries like those of labor bosses:

- Michael J Sullivan, president Sheet Metal Workers International Association $1,043,023

- Robert A Scardelletti, international president Transportation Communications Union $784,531

- Newton B Jones, president International Brotherhood of Boilermakers $607,022

The going rate for a chief executive at a medium to large toll agency in the US is presently in the range $180k to $190k/year salary. That's the conclusion of a study done for Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority by Cody & Associates, a Cocoa Beach Florida management consultancy specializing in pay issues.

Turnpike pay scales and conditions often 50% higher than the state highway department are causing major problems in efforts to integrate the two into a new Massachusetts DOT. The incoming secretary and present Turnpike CEO Jeffrey Mullan said this week in the state legislature that reconciling the differences presented "significant challenges."

Goldman Sachs top execs, we read in this morning's papers, are forgoing their bonuses this year, making do with their $600k/yr salaries. They are, the Wall Street Journal reports, giving up "tens of millions" they are contractually due in 2008 bonuses because "it's the right thing to do" given the problems of the economy and the industry.