Salaries

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake will request Wednesday that the city Board of Estimates extend the contract of Fire Chief James S. Clack and provide for incremental increases to his salary each year through 2018, according to the board's agenda posted online Monday. The vote of confidence from the mayor, who is also a powerful member of the board, comes at a politically charged time for Clack, who is embroiled in controversy surrounding his implementation and support of Rawlings-Blake's decision to close three fire companies for budgetary reasons.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti acknowledged Friday there is still a “gap” in contract talks between the team and Ray Rice, but he remains optimistic the team will reach a long-term agreement with its star running back and quarterback Joe Flacco. Rice, who would play the season under the $7.7-million franchise tag if a long-term extension isn't reached before July 16, is not expected to be at the team's mandatory veteran mini-camp which starts Tuesday and is a threat to hold out from next month's training camp.

Baltimore is a good place for recent college graduates to settle down, according to a report released Thursday by major job- and apartment-hunting websites. Charm City has the right combination of entry-level job inventory, average entry-level salary and average monthly rent to rank 10th on a list of the best cities for new grads. The list was put together by the classified websites Careerbuilder.com and Apartments.com, which used their employment and rental listings to calculate the rankings.

Nearly two weeks ago, when it was revealed that Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs had sustained a season-threatening tear of his Achilles tendon while training in Arizona, we reported that the Ravens could, theoretically, put Suggs on the non-football injury list if he was injured while working out away from the team's facility. By doing so, they could get off the hook for some or all of the linebacker's 2012 base salary. But in the same news story, we also wrote that it was unlikely that the Ravens would go that route . Jeff Zrebiec, The Sun's Ravens beat reporter, just reported that the Raven s have not had any internal discussion to this point about docking Suggs' pay after non-football injury, but that could always change.

RG Steel LLC is cutting the salaries of managers and executives, including those at Sparrows Point in Baltimore County, because of weak economic conditions. The company sent a letter to employees Monday that said it would temporarily slash the pay of salaried workers by 10 percent beginning May 1. Company executive pay was reduced by 25 percent. RG Steel will also stop contributing to the 401(k) plans of the employees affected. "We view this as temporary until the company can get on better financial footing," said spokeswoman Bette Kovach.

The former president of Baltimore International College allegedly misused more than $200,000 for personal meals, antiques and unapproved salary, according to a legal filing submitted Tuesday by the remaining board of the defunct culinary school. Roger Chylinski, who founded the college and served as its president from 1980 to 2010, sued Baltimore International for $5 million last year, saying that he was not receiving a monthly retirement benefit of $17,000 promised by his contract.

With free agency set to begin on March 13, there have been a lot of questions about where the Ravens sit with the salary cap. That cap hasn't been officially set, though it's expected to be similar to last year's number. Either way, all indications are that the Ravens are in decent shape with the cap, certainly in better position than they have been the past couple of offseasons. That doesn't mean that the Ravens have the room to go on a free-agent shopping spree, because that won't happen.

Even as Baltimore principals have been given an unprecedented amount of responsibility over the past four years under schools CEO Andrés Alonso, their average salary has remained among the lowest in the state. The average salary for city principals this school year is about $108,000, just $2,800 more than their pay in 2008, according to an analysis of school system employee salaries obtained through a Maryland Public Information Act request by The Baltimore Sun. That leaves city principals — who lead schools with the largest and most academically challenged populations in the state — behind most of their colleagues in the metropolitan area and only slightly above rural counties on the Eastern Shore.

As more Baby Boomers start receiving Social Security benefits, more and more strain will be put on that system. Social Security is supposed to be paid for with payroll taxes, but President Obama and his party, with the foolish support of the GOP, call for reducing those taxes to spur economic growth. The results are in, and growth is anemic at best. Unemployment is well north of 8 percent and would have been even higher if so many people hadn't already given up looking for work.

On May 27, 2010, the Baltimore County Council voted on legislation that would reduce pension benefits for thousands of government workers. The bill, part of a plan by then-County Executive James T. Smith Jr. to shore up the finances of the pension system, limited cost-of-living increases for county retirees and raised the amount of their paychecks county workers were required to contribute. But a last-minute amendment added to the bill would turn out to be worth tens of thousands of dollars to three of the councilmen who voted it into law. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and former councilmen Stephen G. Samuel Moxley and Vincent J. Gardina, both of whom have been hired into top positions in the Kamenetz administration, are taking advantage of a new provision of the law that allows them to earn their county salaries, accrue new retirement benefits and bank their council pensions for a lump-sum payout when they retire for good.