> It's not a stressful job and like you said they get paid pretty well
I’m curious as to the criteria there. A train driver must, surely, be more stressed than a software engineer? They’re in charge of a moving vehicle that carries hundreds of people. And yet software engineers will still often make more than train drivers do.
Salaries don't tend to be strongly correlated with bad working conditions or stress. In most industries (like software development) it's just supply and demand, and I imagine there are more people willing and able to work for £65k as a train driver than as a software developer. It's a bit different for train drivers because of the strong unions; my guess is that explains their high salaries more than lack of supply.
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. Saying "it's low stress therefore shouldn't attract a high salary" doesn't add up to me.
I don't necessarily know what the right salary is but it's shift work (and you don't get to choose your hours), you're in charge of a lot of people's safety, there's a non zero chance you'll watch someone die in front of you (if they jump on the tracks). It's... not nothing. And if we're looking at how much economic benefit a given job provides a country a train driver is surely a large multiplier.
The reason i made a point about low stress conditions is because i do actually appreciate that driving a train is not as simple as i imagine. I might have said that they are basically truck drivers (just without 90% of the driving part) whose entire job is sitting all day sometimes pressing a button that says go and pressing a button that says stop and a 12 year old could do it. But that would be overly uncharitable and wrong. They are after all responsible for hundreds of lives and thousands of tons moving at great speed. Are they good people? No. Are they overpaid? I believe so.
Just to clarify a point. My main complaint isn't even that they are overpaid. If their bosses want to fleece everyone, why can't they? It's more the absolute selfishness of their actions that bothers me.
I’m curious as to the criteria there. A train driver must, surely, be more stressed than a software engineer? They’re in charge of a moving vehicle that carries hundreds of people. And yet software engineers will still often make more than train drivers do.