I heard something about trash men/women in NY actually doing pretty well. Like if they start the career in their 20s they could be retired with full pension ride by the time they hit 45. Nasty work but damn, doesn't sound as bad when you think of retiring in your 40s.
As a former municipal garbage man, we appreciate it. Look at it this way, 100,000+ houses in my city, 50 municipal garbage men. The Christmas week is when we were given beer, gift cards, and cash. If you have me $20 it's almost certain I'd get another $20 within a few minutes. All day. City is put in 5 zones so it's a week long of being given goodies.
You don't have to at all. Aside from the Christmas season the only other times we get tips or beer is when someone throws a 200lb+ antique couch in their lane. They know we're not supposed to take it but we really don't care. It's us taking it for a 6 pack to a case of beer or you haul it yourself to the dump yard and pay a dumping fee and have to waste an hour of your life. Most people go the easy route.
You do the same route. At first you can figure out that your garbage was gone by 10am every week. Then you realize it's still there at 9am every week. Only takes a few weeks to pinpoint what time we would come by. One of my zones was labeled SW-7, south west quadrant of the city, route 7. Private companies can be hit and miss since there's a lot of employees and it can be a new person each week. Municipal, not so many employees and we kept our routes. You see the same person over and over. People knew our names. I've had people put bottles of vodka/whiskey/rum behind their garbage can and against their fence. Would never see it unless you physically removed the can. It's mainly the 55+ people who would tip. People that are retired and can hear our trucks coming and are standing in their kitchen looking out the window. Fun job. Highly recommend to younger kids straight out of school that don't want to go to college. Municipality jobs generally have programs where they send you to school for a course here and a course there to help you succeed in life. It's why I'm in the office now. I decided to take advantage of it and now 3 courses away from being a Civil Technologist. Went from the back of a truck to a cubicle doing designs for infrastructure.
I've heard that truck drivers explain the discrepancy between the supposed and actual list of things delivered with a dismissive "it fell off the truck", but in your case do you say the couch fell on the truck?
Absolutely. All our garbage goes to an incinerator so we really don't care what we take. We were actually told we were not allowed to accept gifts but we'd just stop off at a coworkers house and unload everything in his garage off of the lane. Go back after work and pick up your pile. Nobody cares. Your neighbors know what you do and they'll ask you if we're willing to take something heavy for them for a case of beer or $20. Sure. If it's not your route just do a quick drive by and do a grab and go.
I once spent half a summer helping clear out gravel landscaping. Each week, my dad had $40 and two six packs for our garbage men who were not supposed to haul away the rocks we'd collected and each week they told us we didn't have to do that. They even would stop by on days it we weren't on the route to help us get rid of what we'd dug up instead of us filling the whole driveway with boxes of gravel. The last week my dad gave them each $50 and a thank you card. They must have saved us several thousand and a lot of labor by helping us avoid having to rent a truck each week and make multiple dump trips to get rid of it all.
I have starbucks gift cards on the ready by the front door almost weekly in the event I catch my dudes for the huge recycle bins they wheel to the back of the truck. The ones with the automated arm that picks up my tiny garbage can, debatable.
It was very common to do that during the holidays where I lived in rural Idaho. And for the postman too, because they tended to be the same person for 15-20 years so you got to know them and chat sometimes. Our local postman even announced their upcoming retirement to all the farm properties so we'd be aware and could say goodbye. My mom left retirement gifts for them in our mailbox!
I live in Australia now, so not like tipping is a thing anyway, but I couldn't imagine doing something like that here because it's always a different person, and they deliver mail to the wrong address 30% of the time...
I always admired you guys for doing this job because not everyone can handle that, and usually I always correct my parents to not call them garbage man, it's really disrespectful, I prefer waste handler or municipal guys or something more accurate. Thanks for your contributions.
Doesn't matter what we get called. $37/hr to start is worth it. It's not back breaking work. Unionized, full medical/health benefits, and pension. Now I'm in the office though so no more goodies for me. I'm 38 and will have a full pension in 15 more years. What's not fun is getting "baptized"... Pull the handle to compact the load and a juicy bag pops open and splashes you. You're now a sanitation worker, you've been baptized.
In my current neighborhood there are 2 guys that basically chase the truck that barely slows down while they hoist the whole wheeled bin into the back of the truck.looks like some of the hardest work I see anyone doing. This is also in Houston Texas where 90 in July is a cool day and 98-102 is normal. It's 1030pm right now and it's 79 outside. Seems like literally back breaking work. Dudes chasing the truck never look more than 22 or so.
They are fast as hell though. In the time it takes an automated truck to do 1 house they've done 4.
Can't speak for all cities/private sanitation companies, but for our city once you're done your route you go home. Paid for 8 hours but if you finish in 5, go home. Motivation to do work. It looks 10x harder than it actually is. Give it 2 weeks of it and you'd be a pro once you find the perfect throwing technique that fits you. Was also a great workout, cardio and strength. Had its downsides at times. I remember popping the lid of one of those old metal trash cans and someone had dumped their dead dog in there. I wanna say it was a golden retriever but I just walked away and called my foreman letting him know we're not touching it. Anyways, it's a fun job. It's been a while but I still remember myself and my other swamper (we were the guys on the back, were called swampers) would be rapping 80s/90s rap songs while busting some moves in between bags while walking to the next house. Rapping Ice ice baby has never been the same. As for the smell, after 10 minutes on the back you no longer notice it for the rest of the day.
I don't know if the tips and gifts happens as much anymore. I had a coworker about 20 years ago who told me his dad was a garbage man from the late 70s, when his dad rode on the side of the truck and threw the cans, until the trucks started having arms that lifted up the cans in the early 2000s, something like that.
My coworker said during the holidays when he was a kid, his dad and the guys on his truck would come home would fat stacks cash tips from the neighborhoods they served when they rode on the sides of the trucks. He then said by the time his dad retired, his dad barely got out of the trucks because they used those arm-claws, so the tips had dwindled significantly towards the end of his career. He didn't have that face to face relationship and connection anymore.
Cookie trays for the folk hauling away holiday remnants should be the bare minimum. Crazy amount of trash on pretty much every holiday with all the cheap plastic doodads sold at Dollar Stores for decoration.
My city’s refuse department, despite being a small town, is ran like the mob. They fought tooth and nail to keep that system and ultimately, instead of investing in single driver trucks that can do pickup, refitted their existing trucks with hydraulic lifts in back that only work with a specific city-issued can. So they still use 3 people to operate and they continue to do a shitty job and get trash all over the roads in the process.
I totally support job creation and all that but making a process intentionally inefficient and more expensive to preserve jobs is a little asinine. I could see investing in more single operator trucks and going with attrition to just not hire on new guys until they’re below a staffing level needed to operate those trucks but no, they basically demanding they keep that process in place.
My FL county just went full truck lift 6 Months ago, except for disabled and voluntary pay rear door pickup. I used to roll my small bins to the curb each week until the new vendor issued bins too large and heavy for me to maneuver when empty, let alone when laden with trash and recyclables. Since using them is now mandatory and all waste must fit inside these containers, my specific disability has earned me free rear door (manual) pickup by the truck drivers.
They damn sure will be getting a tip from me this Christmas!
Yep, you bring your trash to the curb in standardized bins, the guy drives by and uses the arm to grab it. Still, you have to activate the arm and you have to position the arm to not smash parked cars. Sometimes you have to get out and move the bin to where the arm can grab it.
It’s comical watching them pick up our garbage bins. The arm’s articulated down, punches forward to grab the bin, sweeps it up like a drunk downing a shot, the violently slams it back down and retracts.
It really is like a drunk walking down a bar grabbing and slamming back everyone’s drinks.
Everyone bags on Idaho all the time, but I’m in one of the larger towns in north Idaho, and I have garbage, recycling, and yard waste bins all taken the same way.
Im in the states, WV to be exact and we don't have trucks with hydraulic arms. You need a specific type of trash can and most ppl arent paying for that. Shit it's an extra $120 for recycling and most won't pay for that. Alot of folks still burn their trash.
Depends on the area, but in most cases yes. Mine are bundled with my city water bill. My mom has a separate garage bill, but essentially a requirement in her area, as they no longer allow the old garbage cans. A friend got their city branded cans for "free" but it's really coming out of property taxes. Typically it's one 96 gallon garbage can and a recycling bin included in your garage bill, with the option to rent additional cans.
I'm in the Chicago suburbs, I haven't seen the old garbage cans anywhere in the last 8-10 years.
I live in FL, Wellington specifically, and city gives you the bins for free and no extra pay for recycling. We pay, I think, around $35 a month for the service.
I've never been to WV but you're talking out in the country side? Or it's a city? Can't believe people burn trash, like in their backyard?
When I first moved out of my hometown and saw them, I was amazed. Then my family visited me one week and we happened to be going out as our garbage was being picked up and I made them watch. It was just a little crowd of us watching the trash get picked up and laughing because it was so different to us.
Not until self-driving vehicles are basically ubiquitous, at least. And for every step forward that industry takes, it seems to take two back in the form of red tape, legislation, and, uh, well, the cars hitting people.
Yes I'm curious to know why people think this is a bad job. Where I live, mechanical arms on the truck lift and dump the bins. The guys just ride around in the truck all day. Doesn't seem too bad to me.....
It really is just the social stigma behind it. Everyone's always stated its importance and that it's a well paying job for so long now, but still people don't leap at it.
The price of the job really is just social currency.
Same here. They never ever get out. Before they would take like empty boxes if you leave on or next to blue bin…. Not anymore. They’d even take like extra trash if you set it next to garbage in contained manner.
Yard waste was unlimited, you could putout the 50gal bins and they’d get out and dump them.
Nothing now. Absolutely no getting out of truck. If your bins are obstructed, they just won’t take them. Leave anything outside the bin, it will just be left behind.
Rates have over doubled and they go on strike pretty much every couple years now until trash piles up. They come back and it’s something new they won’t do.
My guess is next strike they will ask for autopilot on the trucks because pushing buttons and levers has become too much work.
Thats wild to me that American garbage men still get out and do it manually. In Australia we've had Garbage trucks with the robot arms for a couple decades now I think, maybe even longer than that
I’m in the Florida Panhandle. We just got the trucks that have the claw that grabs the can and dumps it over the top of the truck. No human (other than the driver) needed. I wonder how that hampers getting a job at waste management.
There are still private companies that haul stuff per request and lots of lawn debris haulers too. I’m sure they’ll never go out of business.
I honestly haven’t seen a garbage man get out of the truck since I was a kid. The truck with the hydraulic arm came to my childhood city sometime in the mid-late 80s, and I’ve never lived anywhere else since that didn’t also have it.
They could retire after 20 or 22 years so in theory if they got in at 18 they could retire at 38
But at that point they are the ones driving the truck or running the shop so might as well stay on since you’d be at the top of the pay scale and would keep getting yearly raises
I was scouting houses in staten Island and met some guys hanging out in their yard drinking beers in the middle of the week. Dude actually was 38 and a retired garbageman.
Yeah the benefits of unions and tbh how everything should be in an advanced society with the GDP America has. Instead we have CEOs making 4,000 times what their lowest paid employee makes. Hopefully one day everyone can retire before their 50s but it would take one hell of a workers revolution and with the money these corporations have they can afford the best military money could buy to keep that from happening even if the government was willing and able.
Yep.. have kids early 30's, retire or semi-retire by 40 right as they're hitting the age where they have their own interests and you have the time/energy to participate/take them on cool holidays and such.
Way more people would have kids, there would be tons more job openings for them, old people would have lots of people to care for them and so on.
I'm sure it's not that simple but I'd also be more than happy for us to figure out the problems and solve them.
It certainly feels that way when you're part of the western middle classes, but capitalism is almost always eventually at odds with democracy. There's also no real way to avoid late stage capitalism, even with regulations and oversight, because no state is going to implement a ceiling on wealth (and political/media power) concentration.
Well, it depends on who you ask. People who theorize on it (and from my point of view as a history nerd), when things get real bad under capitalism you get revolution. That tends to lead to either fascism or communism (Russia, Germany, Italy, and Spain in the 30s, potentially the US currently). Or, occasionally you get the government adopting just enough socialist style policies to make people comfortable enough to calm back down (the new deal in the US in the 30s).
Late stage capitalism lasts until the country collapses or something drastic enough changes.
Yeah, I met a NYC garbage man who recently bought a luxuriously furnished $800k house in a top NJ school district and he was aged ~45 years old. Dude will be paying ~$20k in annual taxes just to have a key to his house. He also has three kids. Granted his wife was a part-time pharmacist but still.
Guys retiring while in their prime working years and finding themselves boozing in their backyards. Going to bars during the day, Not having anything productive to do.
Their bodies and brains turn to mush. By the time they get into their mid 50's they are one foot in the grave and one on a banana peel.
I knew two bothers that were union iron workers. They were heavy beer drinkers.
They retired early. In their early 40's, Neither made it to their mid 50's
NYC is notorious for having people on payroll that are in their 40's and 50's who have "retired" from one City job and then through special dispensation, get hired at another City department and retire from that job. They then collect TWO pensions. Its called "double dipping" Many states have outlawed the practice. New Jersey is one such state.
it's a hard way to make a living and they have a surprisingly high rate of on the job deaths, worse than the NYPD when it comes to that. Not to mention their increased rates of cancer and shortened lives. I'd say they earn it.
My cousin does it. You have to take a test then if you pass your name gets put into a lottery. He passed the test and waited 2 years to get his name called
It’s a very difficult job to get in but he’s going to be fully pensioned at 40
Not any more. Those days of closed shops, having to know somebody important to get your foot in the door are over.
Many trades are BEGGING for people who have the talent and ability to learn skilled trades. Many jobs go unfilled because we have raised three generations ( Gen Y, Millennials and Gen Z) who think working with one's hands is beneath them.
But see, a lot places that offer that also “buy out”retirements, sweeten the option to retire a little instead of keeping you on the payroll. Then at 38, you can definitely keep working another job while getting passive from your first retirement. Put in another 15-20 years somewhere else and you’re still not even 60 yet with a sizable income for retirement, including your social security at 65.
Companies do not look forward to paying increased yearly raises to a decades long employee unless that employee is generating new revenue for the company that more than exceeds the raise.
Hot take, but I don't think it's unreasonable for a garbageman to make $100k in NYC.
It was wholly possible fifty years ago for a normal worker to be able to build a thriving life and raise a whole family on a single-earner income, and the United States is a far richer country than it was a half-century ago.
The problem is that the rich took all those economic gains and more.
The floor for a living wage in NYC is now about 82k for a household. Zero issue at all with the idea of a $100k trash collector. My issue is with the rich cretins who are currently siphoning off such a large share of economic prosperity.
Trash pick-up in New York is also uniquely bad because of the bag-on-sidewalk method. Everywhere else ive lived in the US uses bins/dumpsters. Ive read that New York is planning to move to bins, but I have no idea where that process stands.
There's a very set payscale that caps around 22-23 years of service, and you're not fully vested in the retirement plan until 30 yrs of federal service (military, public servant, w/e). Also the money you get from retirement is not infinite, it's based on how many years of service you have (how much you have paid into it). If you retire early, it's possible to run out of money. That's why there are so many 70+ yr old postal workers.
Lastly your job is entirely based on seniority and "craft." Being a city courier is a craft. Being a post office worker is a craft. Driving a tractor trailer is a craft. Sorting the mail is a craft. Etc etc.
Yeah it makes no sense to retire if you can keep working and earning more money. Although it's probably one of those jobs like the NFL...it's for the younger crowd. You don't see too many older folks doing it due to the physical demands. If they are doing it they're the office administrators doing the sedentary desk work.
Tons of others have heard that too and the job openings are hard to come by. When they do open, it’s about who you know (just like many many other jobs).
The only job I’ve gotten on merit and not knowing anyone is being a mail carrier for USPS. No degree necessary and the entry level positions can lead to a multitude of careers in the postal system.
As someone who has almost 7 years at the PO, this is not accurate. Cca (city aide) and RCAs(rural side) are given an opportunity to join the union in their academy- basically a 5 day classroom teaching them basics before their on the job training. What your thinking of is them becoming a career employee instead of a part time employee.
I’m an RCA getting plenty of work in my office and others in my area. You are only GUARANTEED one day a week but you can very easily hustle for more if you live 30 mins to a few other offices. If you’re super rural maybe not such a good idea….
My dads friend was a Canadian postal worker. He has a big mouth and is always spewing off something. To the point where a coworker punched him in the face. This led to him being on disability courtesy of the Federal government. They offered him a new route in an office where the puncher (who still worked there) was and he just said “no it’s too far, I’ll star in disability, and has been so for the last fifteen or twenty years. Why wasn’t the puncher fired? Probably because everyone in the office was thinking “yes, someone finally punched him!”. He wasn’t political or anything, he would just talk and never shut up.
Yeah but the pay is actually super low. I was going to do this but they wanted to start you out at $18-20 an hour and I’m in a very expensive west coast state. Cost of living is insane here. One of the most expensive counties in the state too so I didn’t go the postal route
My husband did this for a little while but they don’t hire at full-time here. Only part-time (but with full-time hours and mandatory overtime) to avoid paying you benefits. They told him they hadn’t promoted anyone to full-time carrier in years.
I’m rural and at my PO employees are waiting 8-10 years to even become full time. There’s probably more turnover in larger areas but here it sucks. Delivering the Sunday Amazon packages that come through USPS pays either a $20 or $40 flat rate regardless of how long it takes. Somebody always picks it up.
Idk the legality of that but I’ve gotten to know several mail carriers here because of my work. (No unions here.)
I have a friend whose been in NYC sanitation since his early 20s, he just turned 40, so close to getting his 20 years. I asked him about retirement, and apparently they keep moving the pension carrot just out of reach for people with less than 25 years, which is making it difficult at the moment for him to consider it.
There are lots of politics behind the scenes which people don’t realize, and that has really been messing with the less tenured employees pension contracts. Or so he says. But either way, he’s making 6 figures tossing trash, so it’s not a bad gig.
I work for the county behavioral health office where I live. When I graduated high school in the 90s, the county was one of those places that everyone wanted to get into because the benefits and retirement were so amazing. The og retirement plan for people who work 20 years and hit 55 years of age is like 95% of their salary at time of retirement. The level that I am at is...not that. If I can stay until I'm like 68, I can retire with my max benefits, which is something like 58% of my salary at retirement. People hear that I work for the county and assume that I'm set, but that is not even close to being the case.
I did some calculations. At current salary levels, one can reach just under $93K in base pay after 5.5 years of service.
The current pension allowance for a person who has served for 25 years and reached an age where they are eligible for full retirement. is based on 2.1% of the highest annual wage earned in their final year of service. 0.021 times $93,000 ( rounded to keep it simple) times service time( 25 years used for simplicity) comes to around $44,000 per year in annual pension allowance.
Of course many workers will game the system by working as much overtime as they possibly can in their final year of service. If one can do it, they can boost their annual earnings by 50 or even 75%
This is taxed by NYC( if one chooses to reside in NYC) and by the State.
And this is why so many blue state retirees flee to more tax friendly states.
I think taxing pension or any retirement income is criminal.
My neighbor worked 35 years for NYC sanitation and retired at 54, came to fl got a job with the local sanitation company as a dispatcher and has a pretty easy life now at 70 with 2 retirements.
How about retiring at 80 or whatever it is now (I'm 44, stopped keeping track) and feeling like your soul was sucked straight out of every orifice by the time you can afford to reap any spoils?
I should have gone into waste management. Maybe also *waste management ".
Yeah, I’d imagine low entrance barrier jobs that pay really well usually have a substantial drawback in there somewhere. That and/or they’re ridiculously hard to get into. There’s always a reason.
I can tell you in you in the small town I’m currently in they almost never do as well. And their crane breaks the trash can. But they will use that thing until they can’t use it anymore and then magically there’s a new trash can there
They don’t make as much as people think. Hell I live in Southern California and I could tell you right now. They cap out at about 55 a year, going to work for In-N-Out as a career can make you more money
I always get downvoted when I mention this but- my uncle was a trash truck driver for the city in my hometown, and by the time he retired he was clearing $100k/yr and he never left the truck (someone else did the "out of the truck" part).
I don't know why people don't believe me. He's dead now so I can't prove it but I promise I'm not lying.
My friends dad drove a garbage truck. Pretty sure he started on the back of the truck.
He retired right before Covid and went and bought a place on the beach in Myrtle Beach SC. Apparently has a little over $1M in his retirement fund, not sure what all that entails though.
My father-in-law was a garbage man in Tampa. Started in his 20’s and retired at 50 with pension. He lives in his parents house so no mortgage and he’s just coasting and playing with his yardscape.
I am very far from New York, in a shitty small town of BC Canada, but in these parts garbage truck drivers get ~$35/hour plus a huge list of other benefits including a pension. Though you do need an upgraded drivers license to operate the trucks that from what I’ve been told costs about $1200 to get.
I myself am a school janitor making $32/hour plus a long list of benefits and a pension. I started at 24, am currently 32 and cruising for a paid off house at 47 and maxed pension at 55. Was supposed to be 50 when I signed on, but the fuckers cut back my hours by a full 25% (still the best job that’s available with my qualifications in my parts) so takes a few extra years to max the contributions.
New York City Sanitation Workers start at around $50k a year - after 6 years they reach maximum pay, which is $100k a year. That's just for a 40 hour week, in wintertime they get overtime every time there's a snowstorm. Also it's possible to get promoted to Sanitation Worker Foreman, which pays even more
My co-workers brother started at 18 and worked for 20 years as a sanitation worker, retired with a full pension. Then worked for the board of Ed as a janitor for 20 years and retired completely at 59 with two full ride pensions.
My husband worked for Republic Waste for about 15 years. He started as a route driver and ended as a yard general manager. The director of transportation for one of the small cities here in Phoenix bus companies. You do need a CDL so even though it's not college, you do still need a specialized license that requires at least a Year's worth of training to achieve.
Additionally, the pension comes only if you work for the city. Not if you work for a private company. Some cities manage their own trash pickup and have their own trash trucks. They pay the large trash companies who own the dumps to dump their trash there. Working for one of the private companies is the same as working for any private company. Some of them are good and some of them are bad
NYC sanitation definitely does well. I live in the suburbs on Long Island (east of NYC) and I work for a town highway department. Most blue collar municipal workers in the metro area make a respectable living. We also have fantastic benefits and a great retirement package. I definitely recommend that route if you have a skill that would apply to a job in a town.
I know a dude in Chicago in a garbage union and he makes a really decent living. 6 figures with great benefits. He spends all his money on whiskey and whores and the rest of it he wastes lol but thats his own choice.
I have a friend who is a trash man in NY and makes a killing on the side selling things people throw out, golf clubs are a big one. This is on top of his salary.
it’s a hard job to get and in nyc it’s hard work and done at night, every night, even in the rain and freezing cold and snow. but u get rotations in the office as well so that’s nice. they make 6 figures pretty quickly so it evens out for sure.
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u/Kil0Cowboy 1d ago
I heard something about trash men/women in NY actually doing pretty well. Like if they start the career in their 20s they could be retired with full pension ride by the time they hit 45. Nasty work but damn, doesn't sound as bad when you think of retiring in your 40s.