<p>Homer, you don’t address any questions that I pose to you. I will say again, show me one reputable source that supports your claim. Oh that is right, you can’t. Most cops do not make even close to six figures.</p>
<p>Just because the head of police for an entire city might make near 100k does not mean that , and I quote you, “cops can easily surpass engineers in pay”. Not only are your statements totally false with a total lack of proof and support, but your reasoning is on par with your average 5 year old. If you want to contribute to this forum, I suggest you state facts, not totally made up garbage. Every post you make yourself look more foolsh. If you were smart you would just stop.</p>
<p>“The current starting salary for a trooper is $58,748.29 (including uniform allowance). The second-year total compensation jumps to $65,662.39. Top pay for a Trooper I is $97,188.48.”</p>
<p>It’s say “Top pay for a Trooper I is $97,188.48.” It does not say every trooper 1.</p>
<p>I have a friend that is a kY state Police(Lt. with 20 year on the force)…He makes ~ $90K a year, but he has two k-9, and is also on the bomb squad.</p>
<p>Homer, I will repeat, your reasoning is totally flawed. You can’t just find one of the highest paying police departments and say that that supports your claim that cops can easily surpass engineers in pay. I can find you salaries of engineers at very lucrative companies that make much more than that. If you are comparing professions you can’t just choose one very small sample to support your claim. I could pull engineers salaries for a company like Microsoft or Google that make much more than average for the profession but use the data to support a claim that all engineers easily make that much. It doesn’t mean anything. </p>
<p>The bottom line is that generally speaking, engineers will significantly out earn cops and sanitation worker. There is no way around it. Statistics show this. Your link for New Jersey cops says top pay is 97k. I can argue that top pay for engineers is more than this. 100k is not uncommon mid career for engineers. I am speaking from experience. The very top earners in the engineering field can make much more.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the waiting list for Suffolk county is huge. I knew someone who is an FDNY firefighter who had thought about becoming a cop over there.</p>
<p>I met a PAPD sgt who makes $250k a year (total, not base). I’m not sure about the waiting list though. </p>
<p>Yes, there are some select police departments that pay quite well. You just have to wait for an opportunity to join and weigh the risks involved as well as your desire to become a cop. Of course, this is not true for the majority of places around the country.</p>
<p>Yes, some engineers can get paid for overtime and depending on how company stock does, retirement plans etc. can do quite well. Or in consulting environments engineers can gain partner status etc. Plus, the government hires engineers and many of them get pensions also.</p>
<p>The point is, finding the absolutely highest paid cops and passing that off as the norm is not valid. I can tell you that the top 1% or 5% of engineers make much more than the top 1% or 5% of cops. Not only this, but an engineering degree can provide management or consulting opportunites and can lead to many lucrative careers.</p>
<p>Bottom line, you claiming that cops can easily surpass engineers in pay is not valid at all. Compare the professions as a whole and you will see that your argument has no basis.</p>
<p>“Why do you think companies are moving out of NJ for?”</p>
<p>A better question would be to ask why companies are moving ot of the US. </p>
<p>Here is a great article that just aout summarizes problems in the field. IBM has offered to rehire their laid off employees. The catch? They have to move to INDIA!</p>
<p>“RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – If new figures reported today by The Times of India are correct, IBM most likely now employs more people across India than in the United States.”</p>
<p>Well, in fairness to Homer28, NYPD and the other PD’s he has been citing are not the highest-paying PD’s; if anything, they are one of the lower paying ones. </p>
<p>In contrast, let’s talk about the Bay Area. The San Francisco Police Department is paying $76-101k just to start.</p>
<p>“…The current annual entry-level salary for Police Officers is: $75,868 to $101,556”</p>
<p>[SFPD[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Oakland is paying $71-90k for entry-level police officers, and even paying over $5k a month just for trainees starting from the 1st day in the Academy.</p>
<p>You can blow out that salary through extensive overtime. It’s gotten to the point that high pay is now considered a major recruiting pure, to the point that people are being attracted to the job just for the money, not because they actually want to do the job. </p>
<p>In one typical instance, a field training officer whose base salary was $87,172.81 in 2006, actually earned $244,612.77…
"The high starting salary and good benefits are the main reasons people go into the police academy, said Sgt. Robert Glock an officer in the training department of the police…A lot of people who come in now have a lack of career ambition and are here for the money,</p>
<p>Keep in mind that these are starting pay figures for a police officer who doesn’t even need a college degree. </p>
<p>In contrast, in 2009, the engineering graduates from Berkeley - one of the top-ranked engineering schools in the world - made only $55-75k to start. </p>
<p>If you want to be a cop, be a cop!! For most people, “realistic” career choices boil down to a handful of fields, based on talent, interest, and opportunity. For example, my wife’s cousin decided to be an NFL linebacker, but I just don’t think that it would work for me. To put it another way (people able/interested in being a cop) intersection (people able/interested in being an engineer) is much much smaller than either contributing group.</p>
<p>My uncle was a police chief for a small town in Ohio, one my cousins is a cop in another small Ohio town, and my family has a couple of friends who are or were PA cops. The pay is pretty good, but the hours are awful and you have to put up with the prospect of shooting people and/or getting shot. The career restricts your activities AND your friends - years ago I did community theater, and one of the actors was a local cop. Any guesses who didn’t get invited to the cast parties?</p>
<p>Conversely, I set my own hours, work frequently from home, have a nice office (okay, cubicle), great benefits, and hardly ever get shot at! </p>
<p>It is also important to note that almost every career these days uses “banding” where a given job title is limited to a fixed salary range. In most cases the upper limit of that range can be as much as twice what the actual earners are making - this is done to allow for those “stagnant” types who will spend 30 years in a job without ever getting a promotion. This does not happen all that often, but they have to allow for it. I had a chance to peruse my company’s salary tables, and the upper limit for an “Engineer I” was over $110k - I doubt anyone was making that, but they allowed the possibility that after 30 years of raises an unambitious engineer might get there…</p>
<p>Oh, and I get overtime. Tragically, it is not time and a half, just regular time, but I get it.</p>