- More than 1,100 MTA employees doubled their annual salaries through overtime pay.
- 566 MTA employees each collected more than $100,000 in OT.
- Metro-North Railroad OT hit a new record of $131 million.
Albany, NY — Overtime costs at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) last year surged to nearly $1.3 billion, up from $1.1 billion in 2021 according to data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
The number of MTA employees collecting at least $100,000 in overtime surged from 320 in 2021 to 566 in 2022. Eight employees got at least $200,000 in 2022, up from four a year prior. The MTA’s top overtime recipients are listed below.
The six-figure overtime club included employees from every MTA agency.
Measured another way, 1,133 employees more than doubled their 2022 regular pay with overtime, up from 835 in 2021.
The one-year rise in overtime costs ($171 million) equates to nearly half of the new revenue anticipated next year from the MTA’s just-approved toll and fare hikes ($369 million).
The newly added pay records, now searchable at SeeThroughNY.net, detail $7.2 billion in pay for more than 77,000 MTA employees during 2022.
The 2022 overtime costs were the MTA’s highest since its record-setting 2018 OT spending ($1.35 billion). The Empire Center’s analysis of that year’s payroll sparked a federal probe that culminated in several criminal convictions for overtime fraud. However, it appears the MTA has stopped releasing detailed overtime reports, one of several recommendations from an outside investigator hired because of the Empire Center’s research.
The Empire Center has litigated several cases in recent years to protect the public’s right to know how government agencies spend money. The MTA paid the Empire Center’s legal costs to settle a 2015 lawsuit after the agency repeatedly failed to respond to FOIL requests in a timely manner, as required by law.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
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