Passenger Trains > Railroad wages

What do Amtrak Engineers or their Conductors make per hour? 

Compared to a guy who sells the tickets at the station or does maintenance work? 

It depends on the crew base and how much overtime you get, here's some ball parks for T&E

AC 70k-120k
C 85k-135k
E 150k-200k

maintenance/mechanical also varies depending on the craft.  You could be making $15 an hour as a coach cleaner and you could be making 250k as a PTC qualited electrician

Holy smokes!

A little manipulation of STB Wage Form A&B data yields these averages for all rail employees:

100 Executives, Officials, & Staff Assistants $156,899.69
200 Professional & Administrative $98,141.39
300 Maintenance of Way & Structures $ 85,411.26
400 Maintenance of Equipment & Stores $76,762.67
500 Transportation (Other than Train & Engine) $102,079.71
600 Transportation (Train & Engine) $93,027.01
700   TOTAL ALL GROUPS $92,692.76

The full forms cvan be found here:

https://prod.stb.gov/reports-data/economic-data/wage-statistics/



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/20 11:50 by wilewil.

wow I know Ive been gone a few years but those wages are crazy.  No way near what We made in the PNW.

Wages are exceptionally hard to compare. Cost of living and taxes will erode what seems like a high wage.

Paying a guy $5mn a year is a bargain if he can hit a free throw now and then. Paying an "essential worker" $8 an hour, no benefits is just plain wrong.

Posted from Android

You999 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It depends on the crew base and how much overtime
> you get, here's some ball parks for T&E
>
> AC 70k-120k
> C 85k-135k
> E 150k-200k
>
> maintenance/mechanical also varies depending on
> the craft.  You could be making $15 an hour as a
> coach cleaner and you could be making 250k as a
> PTC qualited electrician


Where are Amtrak engineers making $150k a year. I've never heard that before.

Frisco Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> wow I know Ive been gone a few years but those wages are crazy.
> No way near what We made in the PNW.


How true, Mark!  I think that the engineer's hourly rate now is at least close to double, if not more, than when I retired in August 2006.  Usually in the 60-70K range in the '90s, the most I ever made was just under 81K one year in the mid-'90s working PDX-SPK-PDX six days a week with 12 hours both directions because we were still turning #27 for #28 in PDX at that time.

To top it off, as a goodbye kiss, the BofLE&T (IBT) settled a many-years-overdue contract just a couple months after I retired.  Unfortunately, I lost about 8K in back pay because they denied the earned back pay to anyone who wasn't still on the payroll the day the contract was signed.

wilewil Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A little manipulation of STB Wage Form A&B data
> yields these averages for all rail employees:
>
> 100 Executives, Officials, & Staff Assistants
> $156,899.69
> 200 Professional & Administrative $98,141.39
> 300 Maintenance of Way & Structures $ 85,411.26
> 400 Maintenance of Equipment & Stores $76,762.67
> 500 Transportation (Other than Train &
> Engine) $102,079.71
> 600 Transportation (Train & Engine) $93,027.01
> 700   TOTAL ALL GROUPS $92,692.76
>
> The full forms cvan be found here:
>
> https://prod.stb.gov/reports-data/economic-data/wa
> ge-statistics/

It wasn't clear to me from the STB site (maybe I didn't try hard enough) if these are all-in numbers and include the value of benefits such as medical and retirement.

Gordon

Fringe benefits are often estimated at 30% - 35% of base pay for budgeting.

Posted from Android

inclusive of other compensation such as bonuses, overtime, vacation etc, but not insurance or payroll taxes  Payroll taxes RRP are higher than SS because of tier 2.  

In the past it was often true that the highest paid employees included the CEO and a bunch of T&E who maximized working hours at smart times.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/29/20 16:35 by wilewil.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Fringe benefits are often estimated at 30% - 35%
> of base pay for budgeting.
>

...unless a freight railroad is costing for a commuter service request, in which case, I have seen factors of 50-70%

TAW

Railroad craft budgeting may differ from various other industries. I don't have tables handy, but the social security cap on contributions, and health insurance were usually not impacted by overtime. 3% to 5% for a 401k match would be impacted by overtime.

We prepared a chart each year for each employee listing benefits like health insurance ($10,000 company contribution was about average back then), profit sharing stock grants, and 401k matching (we did 5%).  There was a lot of benefit coverage that people didn't consider when griping about their pay.

It's definitely not what a T&E pay stub shows.  Only marked off twice in the past decade, never broke six figures. 

You999 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It depends on the crew base and how much overtime
> you get, here's some ball parks for T&E
>
> AC 70k-120k
> C 85k-135k
> E 150k-200k
>
> maintenance/mechanical also varies depending on
> the craft.  You could be making $15 an hour as a
> coach cleaner and you could be making 250k as a
> PTC qualited electrician

Not sure where the difference between the Engineer and the Conductor is that much, but it aint at NJT, that's for sure. The Motormen don't make that much more than the Conductors.

What the agrement says you are entitled to make, versus what the company actually pays you, are often two different things.

trainjunkie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What the agrement says you are entitled to make,
> versus what the company actually pays you, are
> often two different things.

Why have you allowed this? 

Molino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> trainjunkie Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What the agrement says you are entitled to
> make,
> > versus what the company actually pays you, are
> > often two different things.
>
> Why have you allowed this? 

Allowed? I have quit two railoads partly over not being paid. That is the alternative. If you eventually get it, you have to engage a legal procedure and wait...but they didn't have to wait for you to do the work.

TAW

Molino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Why have you allowed this? 

Hahaha...you really don't understand how things work there. It's a cat-and-mouse game that has been going on between the carriers and labor forever.

The employee submits a claim for whatever the agreement allows, which is usually as complicated a process as the carrier can make it, using archaic codes and language that have to be exact, in order to dissuade employees from making the claims to begin with. Then the carrier denies the claim in the hopes the employee won't notice or won't dispute it. If the employee decides to pursue it, they have to fight for it, possibly involving local management, which, if your time is valuable, may cost you more than you recover. If the employee can't resolve it on their own, they have to drag their local union rep into it. If the local union rep doesn't prevail, it may go to arbitration. If arbitration eventually prevails the employee will usually get pennies on the dollar and it may be years down the road before they see anything. 

I don't know any railroaders who don't lose hundreds, and even thousands of dollars annually on denied ligitimate claims. The carriers save millions of dollars every year doing this so you can bet it's intentional. Even if they eventually pay, they have usually made that much money many times over by holding onto the initial payments. The claim denial situation is so prolific that it's the butt of hundreds and hundreds of jokes told in yard offices across the country every day.

For employees who stay marked up, do their jobs as expected, follow the rules, and don't cause any trouble, denied legitimate claims is a huge, demoralizing slap in the face. Eventually, it can make even the most dedicated employee totally sour on their job and on their employer. But that's "business as usual" on many railroads.

If an employee steals from the company they are fired. If the company steals from the employee it is just part of the process. Or so it seems...

And as for those wage numbers listed earlier, damn I hired out with the wrong railroad. TE&Y with enough whiskers where I work can make low 6 figures (~$130K), but it pretty much requires selling yourself to the extra board. If one works a pool job and basically never lays off you can hit the real low $100K range. At least under the current way things seem to be running.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/30/20 23:01 by ble692.