According to Kathryn Garcia, the commissioner of New York City’s Department of Sanitation, there is ample opportunity for overtime pay, since sanitation workers also operate the city’s 2,300 snowplows. “When we have a big snowfall, we move into 12-hour shifts, and so they earn a lot of overtime,” she said. “Last winter was extraordinarily harsh, and people who might on average have made, say, $75,000 a year were averaging more like $95,000.”

And there are other perks too, such as 10 percent extra pay for night shifts, double pay for Sundays, 25 vacation days after six years of service and an unlimited number of sick days. Sanitation Department workers used an average of 14.4 sick days in 2014 — more than New York City police officers, who also have unlimited sick days but who used an average of only 7.7 days of sick leave in 2014.

“Like any strong union, they do have very good benefits,” said Garcia. “They have very good pension benefits. They have very good health care plan. But that’s also true across most other city employees.”