Sankar, 48, supports eight of his nine kids - the oldest is an adult. Divorced with three kids, Molina wants them to have a place outside the city. Molina is buying his first house, a 4-bedroom in Freeport, New York. “We’re one of the very few blue collar jobs that can’t be outsourced to China,” he says. If they leave the job, they are entitled to severance pay too. Both Molina and Sankar have full health care coverage and a 401(k) retirement account. They work a lot too - 55 to 60 hours a week.īut there’s job security, says David Biderman, executive director of Solid Waste Association of North America, the association that represents thousands of waste management workers.īiderman argues the waste industry offers long-term job security for working class folks. Beyond the stench, Molina and Sankar lift heavy trash bags every night, weave through traffic, and talk to each other constantly for safety. Guys who go to college might not make the kind of money “(I make) on the back of a garbage truck, picking up trash,” says Sankar. Molina and Sankar are aware that they outearn many people with a college degree. Not everyone makes six figures, but most trash workers are doing better than high school dropouts and even graduates. Sankar too dropped out of school before migrating to the U.S. He says his starting salary was about $80,000. Molina dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and he’s worked at Crown for 10 years. Their wages have grown in eight of the last nine years, according to their bosses, brothers David and Jerry Antonacci, owners of Crown Container, a waste management company. Molina made $112,000 last year as a garbage truck driver and Sankar made $100,000 as a helper, riding on the back of the truck. Graph shows a comparison of high school dropouts, graduates and trash truck drivers. “Your trash is my money,” Molina, 32, says with a baby-faced grin. Part of the reason is they get paid well for their hard work. rain or shine, ice cold or burning hot.Īnd yet, they love their job. One time, Sankar saw a human leg in a dumpster. Stale fish, footlong rats, dead pigs and cows. Molina and his co-worker, Tony Sankar, have been picking up trash together in New York City for the past 10 years. NEW YORK - Noel Molina smells like a lot of the time, but he also smells like money - and lots of it. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated.
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