When I grow up; I want to be a lifeguard. Sure, there are responsibilities, training, and risks that go into the job. But think about it. If you work in Newport Beach, you sit above the sand, enjoy some of the best weather in the world, and you receive $211,000 in compensation per year for your troubles.
That’s right; fulltime lifeguards in Newport Beach can make nearly a quarter million dollars per year. 12 of the 13 full-time lifeguards earn at least $100,000 per year and are eligible for public safety pensions of 3@50.
The Newport Beach City Manager says that these elite members of the life guarding team don’t actually sit in towers; they are the administrators of the service, who maintain the clerical and business side of saving lives. But let’s not over look that they are lifeguards, and they are in the top 5% of all wage earners in the United States, and in at least one case a lifeguard is brushing up against the top 1.5%.
So when I grow up, or when I come to my senses as a grown up, I’m going to stop writing and move to the beach, and retire young and rich,
From Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government.com:
Public outrage over lavish government employee compensation and pensions is becoming more heated as new revelations about excesses seem to crop up every week. The latest: Newport Beach, California, where some lifeguards have compensation packages that exceed $200,000 and where these “civil servants” can retire with lucrative government pensions at age 50.
Newport Beach has two groups of lifeguards. Seasonal tower lifeguards cover Newport’s seven miles of beach during the busy summer months. Part-time seasonal guards make $16 to $22 per hour with no benefits. They are the young people who man the towers and do the lion’s share of the rescues. Another group of highly compensated full-time staff work year-round and seldom, if ever, climb into a tower. According to the City Manager, the typical Daily Deployment Model in the winter for these lifeguards is 10 hours per day for four days each week, mainly spent driving trucks around, painting towers, ordering uniforms and doing basic office work-none are actually manning lifeguard towers.
Read the full article here.