The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
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.
There's more:
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.
They sure are not poor:
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.
Worried about inequality?
The median pay for city employees — meaning half of all of them made more, and half made less — was nearly $93,000, the Sun-Times analysis found.
Probably not a good idea to allow government workers to vote.
