In a message dated 8/13/99 5:50:11 AM Pacific Daylight Time, you write: << Every dollar saved on salary is far more than a dollar saved in the overall compensation package. Cynical? Who me? >> If (hypothetically) the technician who was awarded this contract could make $500 a week on the outside (which could easily be done tuning 1 piano per day, 5 days a week @$100.00 each at 3:30 or 4 PM, Saturdays and Sundays off, 50 weeks a year) (or even 1 piano Monday through Friday and 3 on Saturday @ $65.00 would gross $520.00), that person would more than double the salary by earning $25,000 in the private market. $47,500 would not be such a poor income. and there would be some benefits on top of that which might easily make the equivilant of over $50,000. Just think what the University would have to pay if it hired a private contractor to tune 3 pianos per day plus other kinds of services "as needed". Let's say the private contractor gave them a "great deal" and charged them only $50.00 per tuning. If the technician did the equivalent of 3 a day for 50 weeks, 750 pianos, the contractor would earn a gross of $37,500 per year. Now when you consider that the benefits part of a salary costs considerably and a self-employed person must pay all of those costs, I'd say someone has run some numbers and has made an offer. If that person gets the job and does well, he/she might even do better in the community than expected. If the work is not liked, he/she will be gone before long as in any other job situation. Not cynical at all, Bill Bremmer RPT
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