The news story "196 Pittsburgh workers' pay tops $100K" (May 29) on City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County workers' pay was quite a shock.
Particularly shocking were the annual incomes of police officers, correction officers, sergeants and lieutenants. When you look at the numbers, they appear quite lopsided.
If these are standard earnings, I would say the city and county need to rein in these excessive wages. I have heard that the standard scam is to allow workers to build up a lot of overtime a year or so before their retirement, as their pensions are based in part on what they were paid the year before they retire.
I am not accusing any of the fine people in the story of even thinking of scamming the system. However, it would be interesting to know how far away from retirement those listed in the story are and what their earnings were over the previous two or three years.
It would also be interesting to know how these questionable earnings compare with those in neighboring cities and counties. Any investigative reporters up for this challenge?
Mike Kardell
Murrysville
