Pittsburgh employee salaries, 2008-2011

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Pittsburgh is a city in Pennsylvania. The city has 3,148 full-time employees. Average base salary in 2009 for city workers was $49,510.09, but was $59,723 with overtime and other benefits.

Salaries and benefits

Sunshine Review received a letter from the City of Pittsburgh concerning employee salaries. The information was gathered after Sunshine Review filed a public records request. There were no city employees earning over $150,000 in annual salaries.

According to The Pittsburgh Tribune, 196 Pittsburgh employees earned more than $100,000 in 2009. Only 18 employees had a base salary above $100,000, but 196 reached $100,000 or more with overtime and other pay.

The following table outlines the top 10 earners in 2009:

First name	Last name	Position	2009 salary with overtime and other pay
Jerome	Wasek	Paramedic Crew Chief	$174,881
Harry	Scherer	Fire Deputy Chief	$148,339
Mark	Goob	Police Detective	$144,254
Michael	Mullen	Fire Deputy Chief	$143,872
William	Haines	Police Sergeant	$142,370
Charles	Lenz	Fire Battalion Chief	$141,618
Thomas	Atkins	Police Lieutenant	$141,339
Daniel	Hennessy	Fire Deputy Chief	$139,732
Terry	Pryor	Police Officer	$136,682
John	Soderberg	Paramedic Crew Chief	$136,531
		Total	$1,449,618

Phone use

There was no information about city issued cell phones in the letter sent to Sunshine Review.

Car use

The city told Sunshine Review that there were no existing records regarding city personal car use.

According to The Pittsburgh Tribune, the City of Pittsburgh had 992 vehicles as of January 2010. The cost of repairing those vehicles had risen 47% from 2008 to 2009.

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. 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. 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.

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

• Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire, Pennsylvania
• Public employee salary

External links

• State Budget Solutions -- Pennsylvania
• City of Pittsburgh Website