05-31-2018, 07:52 PM
(05-31-2018, 06:44 PM)trainspotter139 Wrote:(05-31-2018, 06:05 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: If even 10% of the applicants are qualified, they are offering too much. ECON 101. Of course, they might not be offering very much too much — it’s not always obvious what price is enough to get enough supply of something.
They aren't offering too much. This is a competitive rate for LRV operators when you compare other systems. TTC drivers start at $25/hr for the first 12 months rising to $32/hour after 24 months. $62,000-$65,000 is well within the salary range that is competitive with other transit agencies.
By “too much”, I mean more than they need in order to attract sufficient supply of labour. How much other systems pay is irrelevant — our system should pay only what it needs to in order to run properly. That might be less or more than other systems. The transit system is a public service, paid for by taxes, and it should be run economically, not as a way to feed extra money to a tiny number of people employed in its operation.
Having said that, I fully expect that the people running the hiring process know what they are doing. It may be that they expect 99% of the applicants to be unqualified and the way hiring works in this industry is that lots of resumés have to be filtered out. Or maybe they are only a few thousand a year over the salary at which they would get a significantly smaller number of applicants; if so, the extra few thousand a year might be worth it to reduce turnover and ensure they can choose the applicants they want, rather than having to accept everybody who applies who basically meets the criteria. Hard-to-measure intangibles can be very important in hiring.