Occupational shaming is a cancer on society.

I once dated a truck driver whose dream was to attend university. When I told him that as an English teacher, I make half of what he does , had had a fit.

Plus when you're a garbage man you find all sorts of cool stuff and you're allowed to keep it!

Depends in which place. NYC teachers start at 57K a year and max out in 23 years at 115k with eligible for retirement at 25 years. DSNY starts at 48K maxes out at 105k (unless you move into management, and switch from trucks to a desk), and have to wait till 30 years to retire. On the other hand they get a lot of money from the double overtime they get paid for snow shoveling. A really bad snowy winter can net them 20k extra, which is why they pray for snow.

Not to mention teachers work tons of hours extra without pay and have to pay for supplies out of their own pocket

Garbage man makes more than me. I'm a paramedic. Garbage man also gets way better benefits and a pension. I wish we were compensated as well as garbage people.

These are two very unfairly underpaid jobs, tbh. Also policemen, at least in my country.

Where I live garbage collectors don't even have to touch it. Everyone has a plastic wheely bin and it gets tipped into the special truck with two mechanical arms.

Maybe in NYC, I knew a garbage man once in NYC and with overtime he made about 120K a year, he lived in NJ

I love this, but as I told my kids, hope to find, a job you like, that also pays well, however, times have changed, now is not about having a degree, it depends more on the wages, to survive !!!

true they do make more

Starting garbage men for a private waste management company in Chicago can make over 100k.

Being a garbage man is a loyal job, cities run smoothly because of them. Take no shame in it. Thank you for all your hard work, early starts and dedication to any garbage men reading this.

Isn't that some sheet ? We were pushed so hard to believe you can only be successful if you go to college . I'd never even heard of vocational colleges because they had very few where I lived ... by very few I mean one. Kids could go there and get their high school diploma while earning a certification for a career. The schools used it as alternative school basically. I never even knew about it until I was a junior.

In my area, the garbage man, literally, has the biggest mansion within 4-5 counties. He started collecting garbage in his pickup truck and now owns one of the largest trash services around East Tennessee.

Buuuuuuuuurn!!!!!!

And don’t have student loans plus great benefits & vacation as they are mostly government workers… even if you make more than a garbage man you may work more hours than him AND you probably earn about the same when you subtract what you pay out in student loan (often interest if some loans are not subsidized). Also most government employees pay into a pension plan so the can retire comfortably & often young- 55-60. Used to work for NYC schools & at the time teachers could retire at 60% pay once they were (if I remember) 50 years old & worked for them at least 20 years. If you manage to have your mortgage paid off by this time 60% pay is good. Plus you can still work- maybe just PT as you have benefits thru pension. Plus once you hit 62+ you can also collect Social Security. My dad worked for the state for 30 years & retired at 55 & was getting 5k a month until death & no longer had a mortgage. PLUS for a few years after retirement he worked for some global corporations as a contractor

In the UK at least, the garbage man is paid for their shift and often does fewer hours because they've cleared their route early so end up being paid to sit on their sofa

Nothing against garbage men, but you sure about that salary? https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/garbage-collector/salary