Overtime spending by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rose 11 percent in 2015, making it possible for hundreds of employees to double their pay, according to payroll records added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
The authority’s 2015 overtime spending at six operating subsidiaries totaled about $876 million, up from $792 million in 2014. A seventh unit, MTA Bus Company, did not provide an accounting of its overtime and is not included in these calculations.
The MTA’s overtime champion was Joseph M. Ruzzo, a Long Island Railroad (LIRR) track foreman, who more than tripled his regular pay of $101,204 with $231,923 in overtime. Another 421 MTA employees also collected more in overtime than they did in regular pay, with 10 more than tripling their base salaries and wages.
Out of 77,252 employees who drew a paycheck from the MTA in 2015, the records show 158 received overtime pay of $100,000 or more. They included 107 employees of LIRR—where overtime rose by a total of 23 percent. The change in overtime spending at each MTA unit is detailed below:
The list of the 50 highest-paid MTA employees can be viewed here.
SeeThroughNY’s searchable databases now include up to nine years’ worth of payroll records for all state and local governments and public authorities in New York, along with lists of state and local public pension recipients and their benefits; details of pork barrel spending allocations by the state Legislature; teacher union and superintendent’s employment contracts for all school districts; office and operational spending by the state Legislature; “benchmarking” tools allowing users to search and compare local spending and tax levels; and an easy-to-use app for searching details of the state budget.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies to make New York a better place to live, work and do business.
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