The Journal News: Westchester, Rockland, Putnam - August 21, 2005
By CAREN HALBFINGER
While passengers keep digging deeper into their pockets to cover rising commuting costs, it pays to work on the railroad - especially for those Metro-North employees who drive or conduct the trains.
Nearly 30 percent of the railroad's 1,000 conductors and engineers earned more than $100,000 last year thanks to overtime - 126 conductors and 168 engineers in all. Nearly as many did in 2003, showing there's nothing blue collar about their paychecks.
Their earnings put them ahead of many Metro-North Railroad passengers, along with the railroad's own directors, lawyers and architect.
While many railroad executives endured at least six years of college and graduate school, there are no educational requirements for the jobs of conductor and engineer. Nearly all gained access to their lucrative jobs by starting at lower-paying railroad positions, such as car cleaner or brakeman, and some are the sons of railroad workers.
Among Metro-North's nonunion, white-collar employees, 150 earned $100,000 or more last year, while 389 union employees - including conductors and engineers - passed that benchmark, according to Metro-North salary and overtime records provided to The Journal News in response to a Freedom of Information Law request.
"These are public institutions, and the public cost of this is real," said Joshua Freeman, a history professor at Queens College who specializes in labor issues. "It does create fewer jobs, to have a large percentage of the work being done on overtime.
"Besides, Americans work too much, and an economy built on overtime is not a good thing. It's not good for families and it's not healthy. But with the cost of living in Westchester County, $60,000 (base salary) doesn't go that far. If (a conductor or engineer) wants to make $110,000, I can understand that."
Metro-North officials say the consistent use of overtime to run the railroad is cheaper than hiring more conductors and engineers. Last year, engineers earned $32.88 an hour for an annual salary of $68,390, based on a 40-hour work week. Conductors earned $29.70 an hour, bringing them $61,776 a year.
"Given the nature of their jobs, conductors and engineers have more overtime opportunities than the rest of the work force," said Ray Burney, Metro-North's director of labor relations. "There's a balancing act that has to be done. At some point in time, your overtime exposure could lead you to find it's cheaper to hire new employees. We're constantly evaluating it. We do not have any part-time engineers or conductors. In the long run, it's cheaper for us to have one engineer work 10 hours a day than to have two engineers work five hours a day."
Grateful to work
James W. Joyce, 55, a conductor from Brewster who followed his father's career path and is in his 35th year with the railroad, has sought as much overtime as he can bear. He routinely worked 11-hour days, six days a week for the past two years. Since he remains on call around the clock, he has put in some seven-day weeks, too. Joyce earned nearly $50,000 in overtime last year, putting him on the top 10 list of high-earning conductors.
"I'm grateful to have the opportunity to do that," said the father of four, including a son who is an engineer. "All this hustling and working has allowed me to keep my wife at home, supervising our sons. The railroad is a wonderful place to work. I like working with the public. I like troubleshooting with the equipment. I like being productive."
Every hour engineers and conductors work beyond the first eight a day earns them time-and-a-half pay. But not all that extra pay is clocked while driving or conducting trains.
According to federal rules, conductors and engineers can't work for more than 12 consecutive hours without a rest period, known as "swing time." If they rest for four hours they can work another four before going off duty for at least 10 hours. They are paid 75 percent of their hourly rate during those rest periods.
Engineers and conductors also can increase their base pay by working up to eight shifts in a seven-day period, even while adhering to the work rules. One such engineer last year was Erick M. Hagenkotter, who earned the highest base pay for the job ? $98,666.
"There's no doubt the people who earn the type of money (Hagenkotter) earned spend an awful lot of time on the train," Burney said. "It would require working on what we would call his weekends and being able to work a job that he may get out at 8 a.m., rest, and then come back for his next shift 10 hours from then. That scenario would require a lot of things to fall into place."
Overtime costs millions
It takes a lot of people ? 5,800 ? to run the railroad. And with the bulk of Metro-North's 570 daily trains bunched during rush hours, overtime is an inevitable cost of doing business, Burney said. Metro-North spent $318.2 million on its payroll last year and an additional $41.3 million on overtime. Those figures, while slightly lower in 2003, are fairly typical, he said. Fringe benefits last year added $157.4 million to the cost of labor.
"Some critics may say, have them work an eight-hour day and no one will make overtime," Burney said. "But we'd have to increase our engineer work force by 30 to 40 percent. When you're talking about hiring, you're talking about health and welfare and pension, not just salary."
The union that represents engineers and conductors, the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, estimates on its Web site that for every new hire, it costs the railroad $20,000 in upfront costs for health care, vacation, sick time, personal leave and retirement taxes.
Metro-North is not alone. NJ Transit last year paid $23.5 million in overtime for rail crews and $26 million for bus workers, with more than half of it planned in advance. The agency's chief financial officer, Charlie Wedel, agreed it was cheaper to pay for overtime than to hire more workers, since fringe benefits add 50 percent in costs for rail crews and 44 percent for bus workers, on top of their salaries.
Most of Metro-North's top-earning conductors made their overtime by standing out on the tracks on hot summer afternoons and icy winter mornings, throwing switches, flagging construction crews and giving engineers in Metro-North's rail yards the all-clear to move trains. Similarly, the highest-paid engineers spent most of their extra hours switching trains and performing other work at the New Haven rail yard and elsewhere.
The highest-paid union employee last year was engineer Robert W. Barker Jr., a 33-year railroad veteran who earned $148,986.
His base pay was $89,024 but he also racked up $59,961 in overtime. A good portion of his extra hours was spent at the New Haven yard. Barker, of Hamden, Conn., is putting the last of his four children through college, said his wife, Virginia.
Long days and weekends
Conductor George W. Reardon Jr., also with 33 years on the railroad, was similarly hardworking, earning the highest base pay among conductors, $94,595, plus $33,140 in overtime. A Brewster resident and third-generation railroad worker, he was one of the few high-earning conductors who made his money last year while interacting with the riding public.
In between announcing stops, opening and closing doors and checking tickets on a 2:23 p.m. Harlem Line train on Tuesday, Reardon said he consistently worked 13-hour days, five days a week, but also was on call weekends and glad to be told to work.
"You don't make anything if you don't work," said Reardon, who noted that, while he has enough years on the job to retire, he would have to forgo a pension until he turns 60. "I've got the time, but not the age. Besides, I just like mingling with the people. You meet a lot of interesting people."
Reardon's work assignment includes four hours of swing time, which he said he spends walking the track at Yankee Stadium or in Central Park, or visiting a friend who works at the Empire State Building or meeting his wife for lunch.
Justin Evans, a 36-year-old computer operator who regularly commutes between Mount Vernon and Tuckahoe, said he was astounded when told about the hefty overtime earnings of some conductors and engineers.
"That's unbelievable," he said. "It sounds like I need to go work for them. Not only are they collecting the tickets, they're really collecting the money. I think that pay is too much."
Beyond their annual take, the extra pay can have a lasting impact on conductors and engineers preparing to retire. Pensions are based on the average of the highest pay earned in three consecutive years in the last decade of work. That means many could retire with annual pensions in excess of $60,000.
"That's something that's gone on in this industry forever, that people who are close to retirement get the most overtime," said Beverly Dolinsky, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"Some retire on more than they earned when they were working. That doesn't sound like it's good for the railroad, but it is good for the worker. This is something that's been going on as long as I can remember. They talk about reforms, but it never seems to happen."
How we got the story
On June 29, The Journal News filed a Freedom of Information Law request for a list of all Metro-North Railroad employees who earned $100,000 or more in 2004 and 2003, the amount of their overtime pay and their job titles. The railroad mailed the requested information on July 21.
After reviewing the material, the newspaper during the past two weeks sought additional information, including the work schedules for the top earners for a specific period.
The MTA first refused the newspaper's oral requests, then sought a written request after the state Committee on Open Government shared its legal opinion with the agency that the information should be publicly available. The railroad ultimately provided the information Wednesday, but the records could be deciphered only with a "run book'' held by engineers and conductors, which was not provided by the railroad.
Metro-North's press office sent memos to each of the conductors and engineers who are the railroad's top 20 wage earners, informing them that The Journal News wanted to speak with them about a story on overtime pay that would include their names and earnings. None contacted the reporter or responded to telephone messages left at their homes. The two conductors quoted in this article were interviewed on trains.
