All after a report that a Madison bus driver, of all people, earned the most of anyone employed by the city of Madison last year.

John E. Nelson, a Madison Metro veteran, compiled nearly $110,000 in overtime on top of his regular $49,000-plus salary. Another driver, Greg Tatman, with his overtime pulled down $125,598.

Both those figures eclipsed the salaries of many city department heads, including the mayor himself. Nelson even earned more than the chiefs of the fire and police departments.

As expected, many citizens were outraged. Some people insisted the drivers are greedy malcontents who cut off cars when they pull their buses away from bus stops. Others accused them of having a cushy job. Many more demanded that the city do anything it can to disband their union contract.

It has been always thus. Folks on the high end of our country’s widening income gap are seldom begrudged their six-figure salaries. But let a working stiff earn some big bucks and all hell breaks loose.

First, the invective shouldn’t be directed at the drivers. They aren’t to blame. Those who made all that money did so because they were asked to work longer hours, some as many as seven days a week. Why? Because to keep buses running, they had to fill in for sick or missing drivers. It’s more likely that the blame ought to be directed at a management that hasn’t been able to get a handle on the driver shortages.

The union contract that the city signed with the Teamsters Union stipulates plainly how overtime will be computed and at what rate. The theory of overtime, after all, is to discourage employers from requiring it, especially on a regular basis. Most workers would rather work a regular 40-hour week at a livable wage and spend the rest of the time with their families or on whatever they want. Time off to many workers is just as important as pay.

And I suspect that the hassle many of our bus drivers experience every day makes that time off even more welcome.

When they lose that time off, they get compensated.

In an age when CEOs and other big shots are hauling in multimillion-dollar salaries and bonuses, why should it be so terrible that once in a while a working man or woman gets a piece of the pie too?
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