A BART janitor brought in more than $270,000 in pay and benefits last year, which could have some people thinking about making a career change.
“I am stunned,” Debra Flinker, a BART rider, told the East Bay Times. “Actually, I’m appalled.”
For most, having a job description that includes “wiping up the dirt, the grime, the pee, the vomit, the mysterious sludge” from a train station is cause for pause, SF Gate noted, adding that BART janitor Liang Zhao Zhang might be one of the best-paid janitors in an industry that has a median pay of $27,000.
Zhang lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. His official title is system service worker, and his base salary in 2015 was nearly $58,000, according to a report from Transparent California, a nonprofit based in Las Vegas.
According to BART spokesperson Alicia Trost, Zhang brought in some $162,000 extra in overtime pay in 2015, and benefits nudged his total compensation for the year to $276,121.07.
“This employee signs up for every overtime slot that becomes available,” Trost said, according to SF Gate. “He is likely working almost every day of the year cleaning our stations. He is signing up for time that is also available to others – if he doesn’t take the hours, someone else will. The sign-ups are based on seniority.”
According to SF Gate, Zhang worked more than 4,000 hours in 2015, which is twice what the typical employee works in a year.
State Sen. Steve Glazer said the news comes as no shock to him, Fox News noted.
“There are many examples like this,” he said.
According to the East Bay Times, a maintenance worker at the Port of Oakland also made over $200,000 in pay and benefits last year.
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