What do you think of LIFEGUARD PAY?

[AviatorTom]

The highest paid lifeguard in California got paid more than half-a-million US dollars in 2021. And he's not alone. The top 10 California lifeguards all made more than US$300 thousand in 2021.

Being a lifeguard is a strenuous and stressful job, and is very important for swimmers' safety, but do they deserve such huge pay numbers?

Is this one of the reasons living in California is so expensive?

Interesting that all of the top 10 are guys.

What do you think?

Can you compare this to lifeguards in your area?

You can get the whole story here:

https://openthebooks.substack.com/p/top-paid-la-lifeguards-earned-up?s=r

[Soteris]

Sounds good to me. The people on this list has quite the qualifications and are expected to perform a large number of duties ranging from guarding to saving someones life. Putting aside the various captains, section chiefs and such since that is internal stuff that I am not that familiar on.

To be an ocean lifeguard specialist you not only need to be at peek physical shape with good hearing and eyesight but also be scuba certified, proficient in seamanship, emergency medical technician (EMT) certified, 5 years of ocean lifeguard service etc..

It is both a physically demanding job and requires you to juggle countless skills and responsibilities at the same time. I also think that jobs such as teachers, healthcare staff and indeed lifeguards should have among the highest wages in the country because their jobs are just that important for us in society as opposed to some loser in a hedgefund.

[SnowedIn]

The question is fair. That said, it's not like these guys are being handed that money in cash. Some of that comp is in benefits and much is overtime (which, yes, is cash). That overtime isn't necessarily that they're overpaid but likely that there weren't enough guards so that person did more work and tripped over the rules for paying overtime.

The other consideration is that these are all senior leadership positions. This isn't the guy with a buoy about to run into the water. These are the high level folks whose counterparts at a white collar company would be a vice president and have an equivalent salary BUT with no responsibility for life saving or the environmental conditions in which they work.

I'm not saying that they should necessarily get all the money on the one hand but on the other there's a lot more to this story than the pay chart.

[Amy10223]

I think that pay is very normal for California. The reason the pat is so high is that the cost of living index is super high there. Much like in Hawaii--who is higher, by the way, and NYC or NJ. But I never knew the average salaries of lifeguards in NJ were (or in NYC). That's not the reason why California is so expenxive to live in; it's because Caifornia is expensive that the lifeguards salary is high. My niece lives in West LA. Her small, 3 bedroom home cost a mint there and I couldnt believe what she paid for it. A home where I live would cost the same if not more, there. It's being close to the shore, the kind of climate California has, the parks and skiiing around it, and tourism around the famous cities, is what makes it so expensive to live in.

[purplepoppy]

Are they rescuing people in shark infested water? I've no idea how much uk lifeguards get paid but it won't be much

[NathanDavis]

sounds reasonable to me...

all of these positions are exceptional, these are not your typical teenagers sitting at the pool watching kiddies

especially the one listed as Ocean Lifeguard Specialist that deal with no regular hazard, and then you have the chiefs and captains who are on charge of hundreds even thousands of people's lives and safety, lol

[Agape93]

How the fuck

[joeldalton]

Jesus Christ!