Former Republican Congressional candidate and current UW-Madison history professor John Sharpless stands up for us against the Governor:
He said he arrives no later than 9 a.m. and leaves no earlier than 5 p.m. During that time, he said he’s either teaching, preparing lectures, doing research, attending required committee meetings, advising students and managing teaching assistants. Sharpless added that he often spends his evenings reading and grading papers.
“None of this seems like work to a guy like Walker because he lives a different life,” he said. “And I’m not going to make fun of what he does. I’m sure being a governor is a lot of work. He has to spend a lot of time in Iowa and South Carolina and North Carolina and courting other Republican big-wigs. That taxes the man horribly.”
But just to make it clear he’s still on board with GOP, he drops this in:
“I will retire with a salary that’s less than a Madison bus driver,” he said.
UW-Madison salaries are public records, so I can tell you that Sharpless’s is just under $80,000. In 2012, only 9 employees of Metro made more than $70K. And the ones who made that much, I’m pretty sure, are the ones who worked tons of overtime.
In other words, what Sharpless said is likely true in the strict sense of
“There exists a Madison bus driver whose salary this year exceeds mine”
but gives the wrong impression about typical full professors in the history department and typical bus drivers.
maybe this s obvious to you, but if sharp less is talking about retirement then he’s talking about a pension. he’s saying bus drivers have better benefits, possibly because he will have fewer years of service (college plus grad school plus post doc)? police/high school teachers often have crazy high pensions, something that doesn’t carry up to college profs.