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Chicago employee salaries, 2011
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Chicago employee salaries are public record under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. On June 9, 2011, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration posted the salaries of every city employee to a public website in a bid to follow through on a campaign promise to bring transparency to government.[1]
At $2.5 billion as of 2011, payroll was one of the largest expenses for the city as it battled a $650 million budget deficit. The data showed that 2,400 city workers were paid $100,000 or more per year.[1]
Emanuel's salary disclosure
On June 9, 2011, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel's administration posted all Chicago employee salaries online.[2] What is particularly noteworthy about this effort is that data is sortable by name, department, job title, salary and salary minus furloughs.[3] Data is downloadable and users can use the online portal to make personalized charts and graphs.
Salary records project
In 2011, Sunshine Review chose 152 local governments as the focus of research on public employee salaries. The editors of Sunshine Review selected eight states with relevant political contexts (listed alphabetically):
1. California
2. Florida
3. Illinois
4. Michigan
5. New Jersey
6. Pennsylvania
7. Texas
8. Wisconsin
Within these states, the editors of Sunshine Review focused on the most populous cities, counties and school districts, as well as the emergency services entities within these governments. The purpose of this selection method was to develop articles on governments affecting the most citizens.
The salary information garnered from these states were a combination of existing online resources and state Freedom of Information Act requests sent out to the governments.
A study published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia said the city of Philadelphia faced challenges owing to the cost of public employee pensions.[4] The report claimed the amount that Philadelphia paid to pension recipients limited the city’s ability to use its budget effectively.
The report said there were more individuals receiving pension benefits—33,907 claimants in 2006—than workers in the city—28,701.[4] The authors recommended three steps towards addressing the problem of high costs in pensions: improved data collection, expanded transparency initiatives, and reductions to the city's overall budget.[4]
Salary schedules can be published as ranges, not as specific compensation figures, and may leave out compensation received through health and retirement benefits, as well as benefits such as commuter allowances and cell phone reimbursements. This project aimed to close the gap and provide a more accurate picture of public employee salaries for the sake of public education and transparency.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 ABC News, "Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Releases Salary Information for Every City Employee," June 9, 2011
- ↑ City of Chicago - Current Employee Names, Salaries, and Position Titles
- ↑ Chicago Magazine, "New City of Chicago Data Sets: Employee Salaries, Traffic Counts," June 8, 2011
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 '’Philadelphia’s Quiet Crisis: The Rising Cost of Employee Benefits, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, January 23, 2008
