New Jersey police officers rack up overtime pay
Police officers in Jersey City, New Jersey, earned $6.6 million in overtime last year, with the five top earners bringing home more than $50,000 each, the Jersey Journal reports.
The two highest earners were found to have logged about 1,000 hours of overtime each, one of whom worked at least 40 hours of overtime for 15 consecutive pay periods, according to payroll records.
According to Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey, there are a variety of reasons for high overtime earnings for police officers, including court appearances, which require a minimum of four hours of overtime per appearance. For officers who are often in court, this can quickly accumulate. Additionally, it is cheaper for the department to pay overtime than hire more officers whose health benefits and pensions would have to be funded.
A merger of the city's fire and police dispatch units is planned in order to cut down on overtime, Comey told the news source.
Overtime earnings also recently came under scrutiny in neighboring New York. According to the New York Daily News, an engineer for the Long Island Rail Road took home more than $250,000 as a result of overtime and other perks, more than tripling his base salary of $75,389.
The two highest earners were found to have logged about 1,000 hours of overtime each, one of whom worked at least 40 hours of overtime for 15 consecutive pay periods, according to payroll records.
According to Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey, there are a variety of reasons for high overtime earnings for police officers, including court appearances, which require a minimum of four hours of overtime per appearance. For officers who are often in court, this can quickly accumulate. Additionally, it is cheaper for the department to pay overtime than hire more officers whose health benefits and pensions would have to be funded.
A merger of the city's fire and police dispatch units is planned in order to cut down on overtime, Comey told the news source.
Overtime earnings also recently came under scrutiny in neighboring New York. According to the New York Daily News, an engineer for the Long Island Rail Road took home more than $250,000 as a result of overtime and other perks, more than tripling his base salary of $75,389.
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