Working Class Heroes: Average Pay is $122,231 for Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District firefighters

The Sacramento Bee reports on the upper class, according to the IRS:

No one questions the value of firefighters. They are routinely called upon to do unpleasant and dangerous work, from retrieving body parts from car crashes to entering burning buildings. They save lives, often at the risk of their own.

But other public servants provide valuable service as well, such as police officers and teachers. In the current economic downturn, police, teachers and even firefighters have had to sacrifice, absorbing big pay cuts, layoffs and furloughs. But despite the worst government fiscal crisis since the Great Depression, firefighters at one district in the Sacramento region continue to rake in extraordinarily generous paychecks.

In 2009, 13 employees of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District earned more than $200,000 a year; another 125 earned more than $150,000. The average firefighter in that suburban Sacramento district earned an eye-popping $122,321 annually. That's $32,000 more than the average pay for Sacramento city firefighters – $90,142, itself not a bad wage.

Sac Metro firefighters earned on average $40,000 more than what an average Sacramento city police officer makes and nearly double what the average Sacramento City Unified School teacher takes home. Moreover, teachers need a bachelor's degree and a teaching credential, usually a minimum of five years of college, often more. Up until a few years ago, Sac Metro firefighters needed just a high school diploma and a California driver's license. Today most need a paramedics certificate, the equivalent of an associate degree.

Working class heroes, according to Jesse Jackson and Michael Moore.