Illinois state government salary

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Illinois state government salaries for public employees are made public online for many public workers on the Illinois Transparency and Accountability portal. Governor Pat Quinn signed the bill that requires the Department of Central Management Services to create a website with information regarding state expenditures, tax credits, state employee salaries and state contracts.

According to 2008 U.S. Census data, the state of Illinois and local governments in the state employed a total of 790,539 people. Of those employees, 566,872 were full-time employees receiving net wages of $2,491,829,151 per month and 233,667 were part-time employees paid $212,405,146 per month. Sixty percent of those employees, or 450,443 employees, were in education or higher education.

Legislator salaries

See also: Comparison of state legislative salaries

As of 2010, Illinois state legislators made $67,836 per year. As of 2012, legislators also received a per diem of $111 per day, plus mileage tied to federal rate.

State executive salaries

See also: Compensation of state executive officers

Illinois state executive salaries

Office	2012 salary	Current official
Governor	$179,400	Patrick Quinn
Lieutenant Governor	$137,200	Sheila Simon
Secretary of State	$158,300	Jesse White
Attorney General	$158,300	Lisa Madigan
Treasurer	$137,200	Dan Rutherford
Comptroller	$137,200	Judy Baar Topinka

As of 2009, the salary of Illinois's governor ranked 9th among U.S. governors' salaries. The average salary earned by U.S. governors was $131,115.

Campaign funds

Prior to 1998, public officials who chose not to run were allowed to keep their campaign funds for personal use. Then-Mayor Daley was eligible to keep $1.5 million, and 50 other aldermen were eligible to collect funds in 2010.

Judicial salaries

See also: State court budgets and judicial salaries

Illinois judicial salaries

Position	2011 salary	Current justice
Chief Justice	$209,344	Thomas Kilbride
Associate Justice	$209,344	Robert Thomas
Associate Justice	$209,344	Charles Freeman
Associate Justice	$209,344	Rita Garman
Associate Justice	$209,344	Lloyd Karmeier
Associate Justice	$209,344	Anne Burke
Associate Justice	$209,344	Mary Jane Theis

As of 2010, the salary of Illinois's chief justice ranked 2nd among U.S. chief justices' salaries. The average salary earned by U.S. chief justices was $157,220. The median salary earned by U.S. chief justices was $154,250.

As of 2010, the salary of Illinois's associate justices ranked 2nd among U.S. associate justices' salaries. The average salary earned by U.S. associate justices was $151,918. The median salary earned by U.S. associate justices was $148,245.

Salary transparency

Governor Quinn signed the bill that created the “Illinois Transparency and Accountability Portal,” a piece of transparency legislation that Americans for Prosperity and State Representative Michael Tryon (R – Crystal Lake) spearheaded. The bill, House Bill 35, which created the Illinois Accountability Portal, required the Department of Central Management Services to create a transparent website with information regarding state expenditures, tax credits, state employee salaries and state contracts. As of 2009, the only high-ranking state official listed on the site was Gov. Quinn; other state employees, including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Secretary of State Jesse White and legislators were not included. Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has launched a site listing all lawmaker salaries.

Public employee salaries are going to be viewable on the state’s Transparency and Accountability Portal now that Gov. Quinn has signed H.B. 222 into law. The law applies to public employees in county, municipal and township governments.

State	Last updated	Database	Information available	Sponsoring group
Illinois	2011	State of Illinois Transparency and Accountability	Employee gross pay details for 2011 by agency, name, or position	ITAP accountability.illinois.gov
Illinois	2010	Teacher & Administrator Salary Database	Databases of 2010 salaries for public school teachers.	Family Taxpayers Foundation
Illinois	2010	Illinois State Salaries	Searchable database of 2010 salary information for over 78,000 state of Illinois employees	Herald-Review.com
Illinois	2010	Alton, Illinois city employee pay	Searchable database of 234 public employees 2010 salaries paid through taxpayer funds	StlToday.com and the City of Alton, Illinois
Illinois	2009	Top 100 Paid Teachers (dead link)		Illinois School Board of Education Teacher's Service Record
Illinois	2009	University of Illinois System Salaries	Searchable database of University of Illinois employee salaries for 2009	StlToday.com Special Reports
Illinois	2008	University of Illinois Salary List 2008-2009	A 2008-2009 list of the salaries of employees of the University of Illinois.
Illinois	2008	State universities of Illinois salaries 2008	Salaries for the other eight state universities in Illinois from 2008
Illinois	2007	Administration and Teacher Salaries	Salaries and pensions for administrators and teachers and some government officials	IllinoisLoop.org
Illinois		Public workers, public salaries	Databases of local Missouri and Illinois public employees, including city and county, fire department, universities, and schools	StLToday.com
Illinois		Cook County Employees		Cook County Commissioner Tony Peraica
Illinois		Selected public payrolls (dead link)	Includes salaries of employees of several state agencies, municipalities, and counties.	Better Government Association
Illinois		Chicago Sun-Times Data Lounge	Pay-for data service.	The Chicago Sun Times
Illinois	2011	Illinois Comptroller	State lawmakers salaries	Illinois Comptroller
Illinois	2012	Chicago Open Data	Current Employee Names, Salaries, and Position Titles	Chicago Mayor

Local government employees

See also: Illinois local government salary

In 2011, Sunshine Review requested salary information from 19 local governments in the state.

• Chicago Fire Department
• Lake County
• Township High School District 211
• Illinois State Police
• Chicago Police Department
• Will County Sheriff
• Cook County
• DuPage County
• Will County
• Chicago Public School District 299
• Township High School District 214
• School District U-46
• Aurora
• Chicago
• Cook County Sheriff
• DuPage County Sheriff
• Lake County Sheriff
• Aurora Police Department
• Aurora Fire Department

Teacher salaries

Illinois teacher salaries are funded through a combination of state funds and local property taxes.

Teacher salaries

Beginning teacher salary	Average salary
$33,962	$61,344

Illinois teachers, with the exception of those who teach in Chicago, participate in the Teachers Retirement System. Currently, teachers pay about 9.4 percent of their salaries into the Teachers Retirement System, which the state matches, with districts paying less than 1 percent. Chicago teachers have a separate retirement plan. Even though Illinois was expected to put $2.4 billion into the Teachers Retirement System in 2012, that system still accounts for more than half of the state’s estimated $83 billion in unfunded pension liabilities.

Benefits

Paid days off

Holidays

Employees of the State of Illinois received 12 paid vacation days in 2010:

• New Year's Day
• Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
• Lincoln's Birthday
• President's Day
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Election Day
• Veteran’s Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

Insurance

Health insurance

Eligible employees choose to enroll in either an HMO or Open Access Plan. Health insurance includes prescription and behavioral health coverage

Dental insurance

Employees may opt for dental insurance.

Retirement

See also: Illinois public pensions

The state legislature passed bills to scale back pension benefits expected to save $100 billion over several decades, according to legislators, who passed the bill in one day in March 2010. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the bill into law on April 13, 2010. Gov. Quinn estimated the state could reduce the amount of money owed in the new budget year by $400 million. The law addressed retirement costs for a wide variety of public employees, including teachers, lawmakers and many public servants throughout state government, universities, cities, counties and park districts. Highlights included:

• Increasing the general retirement age to 67 from 62 or lower in many cases
• New employees will have to work at least 10 years and wait until 67, though a smaller benefit will be available for those who choose to start taking pension checks at age 62
• Limit the salary level on which pension benefits are based to no more than $106,800 a year
• Prohibits new public employees from getting a pension from one government job while collecting a salary from another

Other benefits

State employees also have the option of participating in the following programs utilizing pre-tax dollars:

• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Deferred compensation
• Commuter Savings Program

Controversy

The Quinn administration terminated the contract between the state of Illinois and its largest public employee union. State officials informed leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees there will be no additional extensions of a contract covering 40,000 workers that expired in June 2012. Officials said after extending the contract three times union negotiators hadn't made proposals dealing with retirement and health care and continued to seek a pay raise despite the state's troubled finances.

A memo sent to department heads from the governor’s office outlined that the move meant none of the raises that were included in the old contract would be paid and any workplace grievances would not be acted upon. The administration dropped its demands for workers to take salary cuts. AFSCME offered to take a pay freeze for the first year of the contract. The administration wanted further cuts in health insurance benefits.

External links

• School Administrators who made more than $250,000 in 2006
• Champion News's Teacher and Administrator salary database
• Salaries of teachers in Chicago's public schools, February 2009
• Illinois Transparency & Accountability Portal Employees page
• Chicago employees from March 2009
• Illinois executive branch employees from 2008
• How Teachers Total Compensation Dwarfs Other White Collar Workers (dead link)
• Family Taxpayers Foundation, Teacher Salary Database