Chicago Bus Drivers Highest Paid when cost of living considered

The Chicago Tribune reports:

At $28.64 an hour, the top wage rate for Chicago Transit Authority bus drivers ranks third-highest among U.S. transit agencies, according to an analysis conducted for the Tribune.

CTA bus drivers trail only their counterparts at two transit agencies operating on opposite coasts. The top hourly salary for bus drivers at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority in Boston leads the industry, at $30.18; while the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, Calif., pays bus operators with the most seniority $28.86 an hour, according to John A. Dash & Associates, a transit research firm in Havertown, Pa.

But the rankings catapult CTA bus drivers to elite status — the highest-paid in the nation — when the cost of living in the Chicago area is compared with the Boston and San Jose markets. That was the case in 2008 as well — before the last two CTA pay raises — when an internal study by the Amalgamated Transit Union, the labor union that represents CTA bus drivers, ranked CTA drivers No. 3 overall in top hourly pay and No. 1 when the Consumer Price Index was taken into account.

Drivers strongly defend their pay at a time when the transit agency's management is demanding they give up raises and take furlough days to close a budget deficit and end cuts that slashed bus service by 18 percent in February. CTA bus driver Pat Mojarro said transit employees "are worth at least $150 an hour" because of the responsibilities and potential dangers of the job.

Now you know why Chicago has financial problems. How much cheaper could Chicago get someone to ride a bus?