One in Four MTA Employees Paid Six Figures

One in four Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) employees was paid more than $100,000 during 2014, according to payroll data added today to SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center’s transparency website.

A total of 21,352 out of 76,445 MTA employees were paid more than $100,000, up from 10,482, or one out of seven, during the previous year. The increase is, in part, reflective of $431 million in retroactive pay paid by the Authority in 2014 following union contract settlements. The name, employer and position of the 100 highest paid MTA employees, as well as the average MTA pay since 2008, can be viewed here.

MTA employees were paid an average of $80,779, up 10 percent from $73,355 in 2013.

The highest paid employees in 2014 were MTA Police, who averaged $135,598, including overtime and other extras, up 7 percent from $125,912 in 2013. Total pay averages among the other MTA operating subsidiaries were:

$106,103 for the Long Island Railroad, up 27 percent from 2013;
$87,019 for the Metro-North Railroad, up 11 percent from 2013;
$80,345 for the Bridges and Tunnel Authority, up 29 percent from 2013;
$79,287 for MTA Headquarters, down less than 1 percent from 2013;
$77,369 for the MTA Bus Company, up 14 percent from 2013; and
$76,230 for the NYC Transit Authority, up 7 percent from 2013.

The data show the agency paid $849 million in overtime on top of $4.78 billion in regular earnings. The top collector of overtime was Robert M. O’Connell, a Metro-North Railroad Track Supervisor based in Mott Haven, who collected $184,634 in overtime on top of his base pay of $77,478. Sixty-five other MTA employees received more than $100,000 in overtime pay.

The Empire Center is currently engaged in litigation with the MTA after the Authority violated the Freedom of Information Law and repeatedly ignored requests for public data.

The Empire Center is a non-partisan, non-profit independent think tank based in Albany. SeeThroughNY includes salaries for all state and local government employees, including those working in public authorities; maximum pension allowances for public-sector retirees; detailed expenditure data for the state Legislature; comparative statistics on local government spending; a searchable database of state revenue and expenditures; and copies of all teacher union contracts and superintendent of schools contracts.