Many public sector jobs have a market rate barely above minimum wage [1], but actually cost far more thanks to public sector unions.
I don't know about California, but I know that NYC MTA garbage collectors (job: taking garbage out of the subway) make about $50-60k and gets to retire after 20 years of work.
[1] Very few people, even highly unskilled workers, earn minimum wage. Market rate tends to be higher.
[edit: to clarify, by "taking garbage out of the subway", I mean taking the trash bags out of the garbage cans and bringing them to the dumpster, sweeping, picking up refuse, etc. In the private sector, this does not cost $50-60k. I'm not talking about track work.]
Given the observed difference between the salary of a (unionized) school janitor and a (non-unionized) cleaning crew worker for a hotel, whose job duties are essentially identical, I can only assume that either a) unions kill more people than cancer or b) that there is another factor at play besides risk premiums.
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Many public sector jobs have a market rate barely above minimum wage [1], but actually cost far more thanks to public sector unions.
I don't know about California, but I know that NYC MTA garbage collectors (job: taking garbage out of the subway) make about $50-60k and gets to retire after 20 years of work.
[1] Very few people, even highly unskilled workers, earn minimum wage. Market rate tends to be higher.
[edit: to clarify, by "taking garbage out of the subway", I mean taking the trash bags out of the garbage cans and bringing them to the dumpster, sweeping, picking up refuse, etc. In the private sector, this does not cost $50-60k. I'm not talking about track work.]
One point, garbage collection is a risky job and there is a substantial risk premium built into the salary.
Given the observed difference between the salary of a (unionized) school janitor and a (non-unionized) cleaning crew worker for a hotel, whose job duties are essentially identical, I can only assume that either a) unions kill more people than cancer or b) that there is another factor at play besides risk premiums.