https://audioboom.com/posts/6249914-mitchell-armentrou-of-the-sun-times-explains-his-article-on-city-workers-and-overtime-in-chicago
More than one of every three Chicago city workers made $100,000 or more last year — including 36 who topped Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $216,210 salary, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
The number of city workers making more than Emanuel was up from 26 in a similar review by the Sun-Times in 2015. And the percentage of city employees topping the $100,000 mark is up slightly since then.
Topping the city’s six-figure-pay club was Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans at $400,000.
Also among the highest-paid was Donald Koplitz, a retired police sergeant who cashed in on accumulated comp time for a payout of more than a quarter of a million dollars — three years after he left the Chicago Police Department.
To search city, county and state worker pay, click on this chart . . .
SOURCE: City of Chicago
The percentage of workers making six figures was far higher for City Hall than it was for Cook County or the state of Illinois, according to the Sun-Times survey, which combines salaries, overtime and other extra pay.
Of the 25,158 people working for Cook County last year, 2,918 made $100,000 or more — 11.6 percent of the total staff. They made a total of $413.5 million — or 26 percent of the county’s $1.5 billion payroll.
Of 65,535 state employees, 8,640 made six figures — 13 percent. Their combined pay of $1.1 billion amounted to about 24 percent of the state’s $4.5 billion payroll.
In all, 13,767 of the city’s 35,274 employees made six figures, for a combined total of more than $1.7 billion that accounted for more than half of the city’s nearly $3.1 billion payroll, the Sun-Times found.
Most of those who outpaced the mayor work for the police department (23 employees) or the fire department (12).
Among them was police Supt. Eddie Johnson, at $237,162.69. Johnson has the city’s second-highest base salary — $235,746.02.
But nine of his subordinates ended up making more than he did, thanks to overtime and other extra pay.
Among the Sun-Times’ other findings:
• The average city worker’s total payout — salary, overtime and other pay — came to $87,090.50.
• The average Chicago Police Department employee made $99,811.59.
• The average pay among Chicago Fire Department employees was $117,286.71.
• Excluding police and fire employees, the city’s average pay was $67,046.82.
• The average pay for Cook County workers was slightly lower — $63,054.39. The average for state employees was slightly higher — $68,883.60.
To search city, county and state worker pay, click on this chart . . .
SOURCE: City of Chicago
In all, 90 city workers made more than $200,000 last year — just four of them, besides the mayor and Evans, from outside the police and fire departments.
Three of them were in the city’s water department: Joseph G. Morabito, assistant chief operating engineer, paid $213,977.67, including $102,480.39 in overtime; Steve Wilson, assistant chief operating engineer, $200,984.33, $92,045.53 of that from overtime; and Kevin Chavez, an operating engineer, $208,399.08, more than half of that thanks to $108,851.08 in overtime. Their union didn’t respond to a request for comment.
