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SPANISH SOCCER GIANT FC Barcelona has had a disappointing season, failing to repeat as Champions League winner and facing an all but certain second-place finish in La Liga. But the team's underachieving results are not from a lack of spending. For the second straight year, Barcelona is paying its players the highest average salary in the world at $8.7 million. The findings were revealed in the second annual ESPN The Magazine/SportingIntelligence Global Salary Survey. Full results will be released in conjunction with The Magazine's Money Issue, on sale May 4. The poll encompassed 278 teams, 14 leagues, 10 countries, seven...

In a recent newspaper article, the superintendent of the Fowlerville school district said: “There are no employees are [sic] getting raises. Every position in the district, from mine on down, has taken concessions.” To those not familiar with the public school bureaucracy’s jargon, this may sound like no employees in that district will get an increase in their salary. That’s not the case. The tip-off comes in the next line: “We do have contractual obligations that have step increments that occur at various times.” In other words, no employees are getting raises, except the employees who are getting raises. Here’s...

... There are numerous other factors that affect pay. Most fundamentally, men and women tend to gravitate toward different industries. Feminists may charge that women are socialized into lower-paying sectors of the economy. But women considering the decisions they’ve made likely have a different view. Women tend to seek jobs with regular hours, more comfortable conditions, little travel, and greater personal fulfillment. Often times, women are willing to trade higher pay for jobs with other characteristics that they find attractive. Men, in contrast, often take jobs with less desirable characteristics in pursuit of higher pay. They work long hours and...

Democrats always attack, decimate, reduce, belittle, disarm, and de-fund the military. Here is some more of the Democrat party putting down the military and making them pay taking their pay. The United States military forces were greatly reduced by the Democrats after World War I in the years before the December 07, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. At that time our military had been reduced to a very dangerously low level. We had to pay dearly for that foolishness. Such are the Democrats and their complete denial and ignorance of history. The Democrats have always despised the American military,...

Considering the state of this state and the condition of the world, the so-called "Public Employees Bill of Rights Act" might be mistaken for satire. The problem is, Assembly Bill 1655, is serious. It aims to give unionized California government workers "more workplace discipline protections and first dibs on state government work," as the Sacramento Bee put it...

The Michigan Democrats’ plan to pay college tuition for Michigan students claims that “governmental belt-tightening has come only via state employees, who have given back over $500 million in concessions.” But James Hohman, fiscal policy analyst at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, questions where the concessions show up in the state workers’ compensation data. In 2001, the state paid $3.9 billion to 62,057 full-time employees, an average of $63,474 in total compensation for each employee. In 2011, the state paid $4.7 billion to 47,818 full-time employees, meaning total compensation per worker jumped to $97,883. The Mackinac Center received the...

They will now only get the $7.50 daily proration for the individual days they are actually serving in harm’s way instead of for the whole month. (DOD) Barack Obama cut pay for military men and women serving in harm’s way starting this month. The Army Times reported: Starting this month, some troops will begin receiving less Imminent Danger Pay when a new policy takes effect that will prorate the standard $225 monthly IDP stipend. Under the new policy, troops will be paid only for the actual days they spend in the danger pay location, defense officials said Thursday. Under the...

Dozens of Wisconsin National Guard soldiers are still waiting for thousands of dollars owed to them for their service in Iraq. The delay is due to bureaucratic glitches and clerical errors, the Oshkosh Northwestern reported ( http://oshko.sh/xfjOx5). The soldiers, members of the Wisconsin National Guard 1157th Transportation Co., spent much of 2006 and 2007 in Iraq. When they came home they were due extra pay or days of leave for serving multiple deployments, but some never received what was owed to them because of errors in the way the Army computed and paid the benefits. "It's frustrating," said Richard Vander...

America's public school teachers are seeing their generations-old tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire teachers who aren't performing. A few states have essentially nullified tenure protections altogether, according to an analysis being released Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality. The changes are occurring as states replace virtually automatic "satisfactory" teacher evaluations with those linked to teacher performance and base teacher layoffs on performance instead of seniority. Politically powerful teachers unions are fighting back, arguing the changes lower morale, deny teachers due process, and unfairly target older teachers. Teachers in Wisconsin have historically been granted what...

The White House will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees as part of its 2013 budget proposal, according to two senior administration officials familiar with the plans. The modest across-the-board pay jump would be the first increase for federal workers since before a two-year freeze began in late 2010. Raises for within-grade step increases and promotions have continued during the freeze. The proposal, which requires congressional approval, differs from Republican plans supported by lawmakers and presidential candidates that would freeze basic pay rates for one more year. Some of those plans also call for denying within-grade...

Report: Chinese workers at LG factory strike over complaint of pay discriminationBy The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – Wed, 28 Dec, 2011 BEIJING, China - Some 8,000 employees of a factory in China owned by a unit of South Korea's LG Corp. over complaints about pay discrimination, a labour group said Wednesday. Chinese employees of the LG Display factory in Nanjing, west of Shanghai, walked off the job Monday over complaints Korean employees at the factory received annual bonuses equal to one year's salary while those for Chinese workers were equal to one month's pay, the New York-based...

Full Headline: Dept. of Labor: Public School Teachers Are Highest Paid State Workers; Compensation Doubles the Average in Private Industry Public school teachers receive greater average hourly compensation in wages and benefits than any other group of state and local government workers and receive more than twice as much in average hourly wages and benefits as workers in private industry, according to a new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Public primary, secondary and special education teachers are paid an average of $56.59 per hour in combined wages and benefits, BLS said in the report released last week. That...

It's one thing to claim that nameless, faceless government bureaucrats are overpaid. It's quite another to argue, as Jason Richwine of the Heritage Foundation and I recently have, that public school teachers are overpaid by more than 50 percent. This is real money, costing state and local governments over $100 billion annually. Our study generated significant, sometimes hysterical, pushback. But our conclusions still stand, and deliver important lessons regarding education financing and reform. The claim that teachers are underpaid rests on a single isolated fact: that on average, public school teachers receive salaries about 19 percent less than private sector...

While the Occupy Wall Street protesters’ wrath has been focused on "the rich" from the private sector, there are plenty of public-sector employees in Michigan who are among the top wage earners in the country. The Tax Foundation found that the top 5 percent of income earners in the U.S. in 2009 made at least $154,643. Michigan Capitol Confidential took a look at some of Michigan’s government employees who are paid with tax dollars who fall in that top 5 percent. The salaries listed are the most recent available from public records or news reports. Those “rich” employees came from...

Despite recent layoffs, teachers still have greater job security than workers in private businesses. While employment in education declined by 2.9% between September 2008 and July 2011, according to BLS data, overall private-sector employment declined by 4.4%. Moreover, from 2005 through 2010 the unemployment rate for public school teachers averaged 2.1%, versus 4.1% for private school teachers and 3.8% for occupations that some consider comparable, such as computer programmers and insurance underwriters.

The same study used to justify $270,000 in retroactive raises to Minneapolis Public Schools administrators could be used by the district to cut the compensation of its unionized staff. District leaders say the report, which found that hundreds of employees are paid above-market rates, will be used in contract talks as the district seeks pay and benefit freezes and other concessions from union-represented staffers. The study, compiled by Public Sector Personnel Consultants, found that 30 percent of union-represented employees, excluding teachers, are paid above a maximum proposed salary plan, costing the district more than $6 million per year. "Unions just...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is giving city workers an important health choice: enroll in a new wellness plan, expected to be unveiled Friday, or pay a higher premium. The price if they don't enroll: $50 a month. The program includes an initial screening that focuses on preventative care for asthma, heart disease and diabetes. City employees would then receive wellness training to achieve long-term health goals, including weight loss. Smokers wouldn't be penalized, but they would be encouraged to quit. Advisers overseeing the program will monitor progress on a bimonthly basis, and those who reach their goals could see their health...

Here’s the latest on who makes what from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (whose workers, we’ll point out here, happen to be public employees): Workers in the private sector made an average of $28.13 per hour in total compensation in June (wages contributed $19.81 to that, and benefits added $8.32)While state and local government workers made an average of $40.40 per hour (wages were $26.41, and benefits, $13.99). Of course, the amount one earns is a function of the skills and education one possesses. Our colleague Jan Norman tells you a bit more about the breakdown by job type here.It is often argued that many state and local government workers...

Harbor Beach Community Schools paid one teacher tens of thousands of dollars to leave, despite the teacher getting caught kissing some students and head-locking one after being confronted for his behavior. Dearborn Public Schools paid four teachers a total of $197,353 to get rid of them after charges of sexual misconduct and possession of illegal substances on school grounds. Gladwin Community Schools has dished out about $40,000 thus far in a legal case against a kindergarten teacher arraigned on charges of furnishing alcohol for minors. These are a few of at least 156 tenure cases brought by Michigan public school...

Just got some great funk music in this series of 45's that came out around 1968-1975, Florida Funk, because the guitar stuff was amazing. Turns out the rest was truly amazing too, not only was it funk, it was jazz, soul, blues, rock, and a whole lot of artist that were in the groove. Drums, the horns, keyboards, I think I even heard some funky claive(sp?). Your going to love it, and mercifully may even forget all about the budgeting woes.