Paulie Calling in Sick

I watched The Godfather again, and it got me thinking, like it always does. This time it was about the scene right before Vito gets gunned down. Fredo tells the Don that he'll get the car himself because Paulie called in sick.

I was just wondering, how many sick days do you get when you're a gangster? Maybe Paulie betrayed Vito to the Tattaglias because they offered him better medical/dental coverage.

In all seriousness, though.. For guys like Paulie, being a gangster is essentially their job. How do they get paid? Are they on a set salary that they get every week? And who pays them? Does the Corleone family have a payroll secretary?

Paulie was probably on the payroll of The Genco Pura Olive Oil Co. That would "legitimize" his earnings, so he'd probably get paid every week by payroll check. The other buttons had "fronts" also, whether it was being an employee of some trucking company or some other legitimate business.

The novel says this about Paulie's income:
It doesn't say exactly what his payroll slot was FOR, but I'm inclined to agree with SC in that it was under some "legit" job for the Genco Pura Co.

Traditionally, a Mob "associate" (an unmade guy) gets permission to do a job like a robbery, or operate a crap or card game, in return for paying a percentage to the Mob guy giving the permission (as when Jimmy, Henry and Tommy, all unmade, robbed Air France and kicked back $60k to Paulie Cicero in "Goodfellas"). A "made" guy will be given a "living" (like an established Mob bookie joint, whorehouse, loansharking racket) and have to kick back a weekly "nut" to his Capo. Usually that amount is fixed, so he has to pay it whether or not his "living" is earning enough. An example: in "Sopranos," Christopher finally gets "made" and gets a living from Paulie, but he has to give Paulie Walnuts $4k/week win or lose.
As SC said, Paulie Gatto probably had a "legitimate" job (driver? handyman?) at low salary from the Genco Pura Olive Oil Company, which would give him some cover and enable him to declare a small amount of income to keep the IRS off his back. His real money came from the East Side book and the union job that Wayne cited.

Funny post, but does bring up some interesting questions. I think Turnbull is right on target with his answer. They all had some sort of "real job" for a cover, even Al Capone had a used furniture business. Thier incomes from mob activities were sort of like "commissions" and "tax free"

The down side was there wasn't much of a pension plan, but then again not that many were around to collect a pension, or even social security

Also, Willi Cicci was confirmed to be a truck driver for the Genco Olive Oil Company.

Yeah, but think of the payouts for the Accidental Death and Dismemberment policies.

Well yes, Mr. Corleone I am interested in the position, but could you tell me more about the benefits package, starting with the 401k plan?

See the benefits of being a teamster. God Bless Jimmy Hoffa, wherever you are.

Did Paulie need a note from his doctor?
How many sick days did he get a year?

By the way what was Paulies "legit" job. Was it that hard that he couldnt come to work because of a cold. Seems to me that he had a great job, driving the don around. How much better does it get. Drive a nice new shiny Cadillac, go to the best restaurants, get a generous clothing allowance, good seats for the Yankees game, what a schmuck.

Maybe he was suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome from repeated pulling of triggers.

Or repeated pulling of something else....

In terms of sick days, I think they are unlimited essentially, depending on your position and the actual amount you earn. If you freelance for instance and rob this joint or that joint or hi-jack trucks, you could probibly get away with a few days of hard work and taking the rest of the week off, considering you had enough to shoot on up to your Capo. On the otherhand if you had a more established position like, if you were a driver, a more fixed schedule would have to be implemented. There presumibly are certain rackets and operations that may be more squishy than other ones as well and ones that may be harder to get into, perfect or do and then you could always expand your money making activities so it's all dependent on if you could kick up some cash to your capo on a regular basis. Then no one would really care if you took 3 days off here or there.

I always thought that Paulie was only pretending to be sick, that that was part of the plan for the hit on the Don. Isn't that one of the things that drew Sonny's attention to him having "sold out the old man"?

While it is true, that Paulie pretended to be sick, I believe his fake sickness was a cold, or maybe the flu.

While it is true, that Paulie pretended to be sick, I believe his fake sickness was a cold, or maybe the flu. [/QB][/QUOTE]

He did a pretty bad job of faking too!

Didn't Clemenza say he's been sick all winter? So it sounds like Paulie's been busy doing a little reconaisance work. Sonny seemed to catch on to this, why didn't Clemenza, which is why Clemenza was a suspect for awhile.

Yes, I beleive in the book that they actually had their connections in the phone company give Sonny a list of every phone call both Clemenza and Paulie made over the past few months so they figure out which was the traitor.