I'm so grateful for my newspaper. How else would I know that a tattoo artist in Philadelphia makes a bigger annual salary than Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel? Wow. That sure makes career guidance easier for my teenagers.
Perzel, defending the (since-rescinded) Pennsylvania legislators' pay raise of 2005, told the public television show "Smart Talk" that his salary compared with those of big-city tattoo artists. "When I see that a tattoo artist ... makes more than a legislator, I think there's a problem," he said.
Previously Perzel had said that cow-milkers in Amish country make more than state legislators too.
On this program, he even noted that some of his colleagues in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives can't get credit cards.
Okay, I know the suspense is killing you. The current salary for an elected Pennsylvania state representative is ... $72,187.00 with automatic cost of living increases. Perzel was making $109,000.00.
The median income for a Pennsylvania worker in 2004 was $38,000.00, according to the Department of Labor.
But hey. I'm not arguing with Perzel on his financial worth, which he thinks ought to be half that of a U.S. Congressman. In fact, I'm just simply ecstatic to hear that tattoo artists make better bread than that!
Instead of sending my kids to college, I'm going to apprentice them to a big-city tattoo artist! I'll save tuition, they'll save time, and soon enough they'll be qualified for that credit card.
Or maybe I should start looking into the cow-milking thing.
In all seriousness, if you look at Pennsylvania's median income and Perzel's salary, you'll agree with me that complaining about $76,000 a year (and using a profession like tattooing to make your point) is just about as bone-headed as a bloke can get. In twenty years of work, I've never pulled in a salary half that high, and I've even got a Visa card.
The two Philadelphia newspapers both sent reporters to query the local tattoo artists about their earnings. Not many tattooers would go on record as to how much they actually bring home (being a cash-heavy business, they might not like IRS prying), but they all, one and all, declared they'd ever earned anything like $76,000 a year.
My advice to the state legislators who can't live on their salaries is simple: Seek another job that pays better, and move on. Perhaps someone with more frugal spending habits will take your place. Someone who understands that the average citizen of Pennsylvania might resent your pay raise when they haven't had one in 4 years, while their taxes skyrocket to pay for stuff like turnpikes and schools.