Average Salary for New York State Department of Transportation Employees

Pros: I like the relaxed work atmosphere and the work / life balance of the job. The amount of time off is more than i could ever hope for. Once its time to go home I leave and dont think about work until I have to go back to the office the next day. I suppose the health insurance is very good and affordable as well.

Cons: The state of NY, and state orgs such at the NYSDOT are ran by some of the dumbest people in the country. And that isnt an exaggeration. The pension plan for new state members is horrifically bad, you pay more into the pension that you could ever hope to get out of it; and they just changed the vesting timeline from 10 to 5 years overnight so people like me who are between 5-10 years of service already are SOL, we cant leave and take the forced pension contributions with us as far as im aware. It is very frustrating to work for a state org that just does not care about their employees. My supervisor and cowokers all like each other and support each other, however it is the people running the department that do not care. The salary is much lower than private companies, and the PEF Union that is supposed to be supporting their workers doesnt do ANYTHING. Maybe you get a 2% raise on base salaries here and there but that is it. So why do state employees have to pay corrupt unions money every paycheck? Great question, sadly no answer for it. Money is the root of all evil and I dont want to sound greedy but it is very frustrating to see incompetence at every level but that is par for the course at every state run facility. I'll stop beating a dead horse now but being forced to pay 5-6% of your lower than market value salary into a pension plan where you will never see a positive return on your investment is quite disheartening, not to mention having to pay a corrupt union.