One blue collar citizen is the living embodiment of the term “hard work pays off.” According to Mercury News, Liang Zhao Zhang, a San Francisco BART janitor, gained more than $270,000 after working 2,485 hours in overtime, plus 1,421 hours of his standard shifts.
Zhang, who worked 114 hours a week, netted time and a half for working on his days off, and received a handsome pay for clocking in 63 hours of extra shifts during the holidays “at double time.” In total, Zhang gained $162,000 in OT. According to ABC 7, the average BART janitor has a $50,000 a year salary.
In a statement, spokeswoman for the Bay Area Rapid Transit, Alicia Trost, confirmed Zhang’s earnings based on their automated clock in system. “He can’t manually enter anything. It is all clocked in with a machine. Then his supervisor reviews and approves the time before payroll closes,” she said. “His supervisor reports he is well respected and a diligent worker. He has seniority and chooses to work these hours.”
For others, they see this feat as a sign that the BART system needs to hire more people. “What’s wrong is that again, there is that many hours available for overtime,” said Zakhary Mallet, board director for BART. “That is indicative of a staffing shortage.”
On top of working day in and day out, Zhang did take a break with five weeks of vacation time.