Making Hay While the Sun Shines

AP published a story (found on yahoo.com) on the uproar over CA lifeguard salaries, hoping to clarify the public perception that lifeguards make a boatload of money for not doing too much. The head of the lifeguard union, however, made if perfectly clear that ...

"Unfortunately, there's a lot of disinformation out there. People get this idea that we're talking about 17-year-old kids in lifeguard towers making $200,000 and that's not correct," he said. "We're professional level. Lifeguarding here is different than any other place in the entire world."

Base salaries for Newport Beach lifeguards range from $58,000 for the lowest-paid officer to $108,492 for the top-paid battalion chief, according to a 2010 city report on lifeguard pay. Adding in overtime, special compensation, pension, medical benefits, life insurance and other pay, two battalion chiefs cleared more than $200,000 in 2010, while the lowest-paid officer made more than $98,000.

All lifeguards received $400 in sunscreen allowance and two cleared $28,000 apiece in overtime and night duty pay."

Wow, the lifeguards are totally correct: they are so not over-paid for the professional job they do. Why, I've worked as a classroom teacher for 35 years, earning a BA, an MS, and accruing 78 post-graduate credits by taking courses required to keep current. I've worked extra-curricular assignments that often kept me on-site until from 7 am until 10 pm, and, sometimes, much, much later for duties such as prom. However, the highest salary I earned was $75,000, with no over-time pay, no stipend for classroom supplies or sunscreen, and I, too, am on a professional level.

I also well know that teaching here is very different from teaching anywhere else in the world because, unlike the lifeguards, who do not need to teach every individual beach attendee how to swim before allowing them to go into the water, a CA teacher has to assure that every single student graduates from high school, one way or another -- or lose their job.

If I am the well-educated, well-trained professional in the classroom, my "overtime, special compensation, pension, medical benefits, life insurance and other pay" should at least be commensurate with the professional ranks of a lifeguard: Base salaries for Newport Beach lifeguards range from $58,000 for the lowest-paid officer to $108,492.

Add to that all the extra-duty pay and sunscreen allowance and even I'd stay on the job for a few more years.