Nearly a dozen Long Island Railroad workers are pulling in over $200,000 a year in overtime alone — rivaling Governor Kathy Hochul's $250,000 salary — while simultaneously standing on a picket line demanding even more money. Hundreds more cleared $100,000-plus in overtime. And the rest of us are just supposed to nod along and call them "working class heroes."
Imagine making more in overtime than the governor of New York makes total — and then walking off the job because it's not enough. That takes a level of audacity that even Gold Bar Bob Menendez would respect.
The NY Post dropped this bombshell right as the LIRR strike enters its third day, with roughly 3,500 union workers from five different unions shutting down the nation's busiest commuter railroad and stranding 300,000 daily riders. It's the first LIRR strike in over 30 years, and brother, these folks picked one heck of a hill to die on.
According to data from the Empire Center for Public Policy, 23 MTA employees raked in over $200,000 in overtime last year — ten more than the previous year. Six of those overtime kings worked at the LIRR specifically. Across the entire MTA, a staggering 629 employees collected six-figure overtime checks. The average LIRR employee pulled down $121,646 in total pay, with $25,957 of that in overtime alone. The MTA's total payroll? A cool $8 billion, with $1.36 billion — 17% of the whole enchilada — going to overtime.
But sure. They need a bigger raise.
The top overtime earner at the MTA was Edwin Lee, a Bridges and Tunnels Lieutenant who banked $308,821 in overtime for a total haul of $505,147. Half a million dollars. For a government job. Orlando Caholo, a Bridges and Tunnels Sergeant, wasn't far behind at $304,884 in overtime and $474,255 total. Meanwhile, 421 MTA workers out-earned Governor Hochul, and 325 made more than New York City's mayor, who pulls in $258,750.
Even MTA CEO Janno Lieber only makes $420,599. There are bridge toll collectors beating the boss.
Here's where it gets even more insulting. The unions and the MTA actually agreed on a retroactive 9.5% raise covering the last three years. That part was done. The whole strike is over this year's raise — the unions want 5%, the MTA offered 3% with a path to 4.5% if the unions would agree to reform some of the work rules that, as the MTA put it, "allow these workers to pile up overtime, rules which they have refused to even discuss at the bargaining table."
Read that again. The MTA is literally saying: we'll give you a bigger raise if you let us fix the overtime scam. The unions said no. They want the raise AND the overtime gravy train. Both. Forever.
This is public-sector unionism in its purest, most grotesque form. These aren't coal miners risking black lung for poverty wages. These are government employees with guaranteed pensions, full benefits, and a system so rigged that 760 MTA workers earned more in overtime than their actual salary. That's not a job. That's a heist with a pension attached.
And who pays? The 300,000 commuters who can't get to work. The Long Island small business owners watching customers vanish. The taxpayers funding an $8 billion payroll that apparently still isn't enough.
The National Mediation Board has summoned both sides back to the table, and Governor Hochul — the same governor these workers are out-earning — is calling for talks to resume. We'll see how that goes.
But let's not pretend this is about fair wages. This is about a public-sector cartel that has discovered it can hold an entire region hostage until it gets whatever it wants. The LIRR unions aren't fighting for the working man. They ARE the system the working man is trapped under.
Somewhere out there, a Long Island plumber making $60K a year is sitting in three hours of traffic because a guy pulling $200K in overtime decided he deserved more. That's your modern labor movement.
