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It’s not simply the waves making a splash in Los Angeles this Fourth of July – lifeguards’ sky-high paychecks are turning heads, too.
In keeping with a brand new report by fiscal watchdog group OpenTheBooks, at the least one L.A. County lifeguard raked in additional than half 1,000,000 {dollars} final 12 months. In the meantime, 34 lifeguards introduced in $300,000 or extra throughout 2024, whereas 134 introduced in at the least $200,000 in base pay, additional time and different advantages.
Taxpayers in Los Angeles County are used to getting soaked, but it surely may be “unsettling” for some to listen to how a lot lifeguards are being paid whereas the town nonetheless faces a scarcity of firefighters and police, and struggles to extinguish wildfires or return violent crime to pre-pandemic ranges, mentioned OpenTheBooks CEO John Hart.
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Los Angeles County Lifeguards hold a watchful eye on the group available for the Hermosa Ironman on July 4, 2019, in Hermosa Seaside, California. (Photograph by Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Photos)
“Lifeguards who threat their lives defending the general public should be properly compensated, however paying them greater than $500,000 could also be unsettling to taxpayers who’re drowning in debt,” Hart advised Fox Information Digital. “As soon as once more, Los Angeles — a metropolis that’s struggling to extinguish fires and looting — is main the best way in lavish pay that must be addressed.”
L.A. County’s 134 highest-paid lifeguards earned a mixed $70.8 million final 12 months, in accordance with OpenTheBooks — averaging over $500,000 in complete compensation per particular person. Along with base and additional time pay, the greenback quantity additionally consists of “different” pay, depart time payouts, medical health insurance funds, pension contributions, deferred contributions, long-term incapacity and life insurance coverage payouts.
The best paid lifeguard OpenTheBooks discovered introduced in $523,351 in base pay, “different pay,” and advantages in 2024.
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Lifeguards hold a watch out as individuals loosen up within the sand in Lengthy Seaside on Wednesday, July 8, 2020. (Photograph by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-Information by way of Getty Photos)
L.A. County’s lifeguard division is acknowledged as one of many largest skilled lifeguard companies within the nation. In keeping with OpenTheBooks, along with higher-paid lifeguards, whose duties can vary from watching swimmers to main maritime rescues and emergency response, there are a slew of lower-paid lifeguards that carry the entire variety of them within the Los Angeles-area to round 1,500.
OpenTheBooks, which tracks wasteful spending throughout the federal government, reported in 2021 that the top-paid lifeguards in Los Angeles County earned as much as $510,283 – almost half of which was additional time pay. That 12 months, 98 lifeguards in L.A. County made at the least $200,000.
In 2024, additional time pay performed a significant position in boosting lifeguard earnings in Los Angeles.
Lifeguards in Los Angeles County earn huge salaries, with one making over $500,000 in 2024. (iStock)
Past Los Angeles, extreme additional time pay has sparked debate in different cities — significantly these grappling with main price range shortfalls.
In Seattle, law enforcement officials have needed to be disciplined for repeatedly violating the town’s additional time coverage. Per The Seattle Instances, a patrol officer made greater than the mayor, the police chief or another metropolis worker in 2019 after raking in additional than $414,000.
Additional time abuse has been a difficulty in different main cities like New York and Chicago, as properly. In Chicago, the place the town faces a rising price range shortfall, information obtained by a neighborhood information outlet discovered that throughout the first six months of 2024, the town had already spent 30% greater than was allotted for police additional time pay. In New York, a former division chief for the NYPD is presently below investigation for alleged additional time abuse and different crimes.
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Republicans’ “huge lovely invoice” is purported to assist additional time staff carry residence much more, with its “no tax on ideas” provision. Initially, the Home’s model of the invoice had no restrict on how a lot additional time pay could possibly be exempt, however the Senate’s model of the invoice capped it at $12,500.
Fox Information Digital reached out to the Los Angeles County public data workplace for remark however didn’t hear again by press time.
