Comments on This Young Economist: Data Sniping: Salaries of Cook County administrati...

he present data are for 2007 salaries: even though...

2010-10-23T00:58:06.336-05:00

he present data are for 2007 salaries: even though it isn't what people get paid today, it's still interesting. The data have names, date of hire, job title and annual salary for over 25,000 Cook County employees.

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The only assessment I used about people was what t...

2009-07-09T14:35:27.610-05:00

The only assessment I used about people was what the column in the data set (www.cookemployees.com) said they did (Admin Assistant I through IV).

I stopped short of stating opinions in the above post. Actually, I stated one opinion: I think $48,000 is a lot more than $36,000. But, I didn't say how I feel about that.

Here's how I feel, so you know exactly what MY my opinion is: Maybe that's great. Maybe that's not great. It really depends on why administrative assitants for the county are paid more.

If they're producing really great administrative help and they're just being paid for being really great, I applaud paying the county for paying them what they're worth.

I left lots of reasons open for why we'd expect Cook County administrative assistants to make more. I'm not judging, but the fact is, they make more than other people with the same job title (check out the links to the Bureau of Labor statistics and PayScale.com).

As for investigating what everyone in the world of Chicago politics makes, I'm not going to do that. The point of the post was to point out what information is available at www.cookemployees.com. It's an interesting data set to say the least.

But you're right... If my post makes you think that administrative assistants are overpaid, you've got to wonder what everyone else in the government is getting paid.

and stop selectively choosing posts..if you are r...

2009-07-09T14:14:31.626-05:00

and stop selectively choosing posts..if you are real then put up all sides of the story

How do you make assessments based on YOUR opinion ...

2009-07-09T14:13:45.098-05:00

How do you make assessments based on YOUR opinion of what people do?? and job titles..why dont you question what the comissioners do...like Peraica, Suffriden or Claypool. What committees are they on???what do they REALLY do all day???

I think we can blame their higher salaries on a tr...

2009-07-08T11:55:58.009-05:00

I think we can blame their higher salaries on a trickle down effect. Every time the higher ups give themselves a raise they have to pass that down the line to keep the troops happy.

Plus the fact that they are all bureaucrats means that they do not have to worry about costs like a normal business does, their salaries come from an unening source: our tax dollars.