Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
A few years back, the local media ran big stories about government workers getting huge raises despite tough times. Outrage followed.
Wasn’t true, of course, it was “accurate but false.” Turns out that public employees are paid on a 2-week pay period system instead of being paid on the 1st and 15th. We get 26 paychecks per year instead of 24. But every seven years, payday falls on New Year’s Day which is a holiday, so the check is cut one day early and that results in 27 pay checks issued during in that year.
Is that a raise? No – the employee keeps the same hourly rate of pay. The money would have been paid in the new year, but for shifting the payday backwards. It’s a fake controversy based on a calendar quirk. It’s like claiming a 63-year-old man is 9 years old because he was born on Leap Day so he’s only had 9 birthdays. Calendar quirk.
Look for those stories again this year.
Joe Doakes
People who put these sorts of things out there as if there’s not some sort of “gotcha” involved annoy me to no end.
It’s also hard to explain to the bank. “Why did your income drop from $27 to $25?” “It didn’t; I made $26 both years but the employer shifted one paycheck into a prior tax year.” There is no box on the loan application for “calendar quirk.” Just as there was no follow-up story in the local media about “public employees take giant pay cut” in the 25-paycheck year that followed the 27-paycheck year.
… or getting more pizza if you cut it into16 slices rather than in eight slices. After all, aren’t 16 slices more than eight?
I’m surprised the unions don’t try to use the calendar quirk and try to get a pay raise in the following years. Sounds like a “cut,” just like the GOP budget budget of 2011.
… or getting more pizza if you cut it into16 slices rather than in eight slices. After all, aren’t 16 slices more than eight?
It’s not the number of slices, it’s how much you get in square feet that matters.