Analysis: Firefighters overtime
An article published in the Los Angeles Daily News uncovered that the Los Angeles Fire Department’s overtime pay has gone up 60 percent over the past decade while the number of firefighters has only gone up 17 percent. The article also compares the department’s overtime with other major cities including Chicago, which reported a sixth of the overtime as Los Angeles.
The writer would have used city documents since the departments are all under the city’s jurisdiction. The overtime rates would have been on pay stubs sent out by the city as would the data from pay stubs a decade ago. The story is prominent because of the comparison to other departments and the fact that Los Angeles’ figures are so much higher.
Computing skills would not have been difficult if all the data was correct and available. The most important figure for the article was percent change, which is a relatively easy figure to find.
Source: http://www.ire.org/extraextra/government-federalstatelocal/overtime-rages-for-la-fire-department/