Overview

• Sanitation workers earn a basic annual salary, which increases periodically until it reaches a maximum salary after a worker has been on the job for five and a half years. They can also earn overtime, which may be a substantial amount, as well as extra pay for special assignments.
  
  

Basic Annual Salary

• As of August 2011, the starting salary for New York City sanitation workers was $31,200 per year. Workers get raises after six months, after one and a half years, and then once a year after that until they reach a maximum salary of $67,141 after five and a half years.
  
  

Overtime and Premium Pay

• In addition to regular overtime of time and a half, New York's garbage collectors also receive the following: double time for work on Sundays, including snow-removal work; time and a half for the seventh and eighth hours worked on Saturdays; a guaranteed minimum of eight hours paid at time and a half if workers are required to do snow removal outside of their regular working hours; time and a half for work on 12 holidays; a 10 percent increase for working night shifts; and double time on certain other days.
  
  

Benefits

• Benefits paid to New York City workers are generous. Sanitation worker benefits include a choice of health and hospitalization plans; 18 days of vacation during the first four years, 20 vacation days during the fifth year and 25 days starting in the sixth year; 12 paid holidays; retirement pay; and spouse or domestic partner benefits.
  
  

Longevity Pay

• After five years on the job, sanitation workers receive an annual payment as a "longevity differential." The payment starts at $1,495 and increases every five years until it tops out at $4,195 per year for workers who have been on the job 20 years or longer.