Complete report in PDF format

CONTACT: Lise Bang-Jensen

(518) 434-3100

New Yorkers can now search for the names, titles, base salaries and total wages of 409,878 individuals who were employed by the New York City government during 2009 at SeeThroughNY.net, the transparency website sponsored by the Empire Center for Public Policy.

The searchable database of city employees, obtained from the city Office of Payroll Administration, provides both base salary rates and total reported 2009 pay, including overtime.

A summary of the payroll data for major city agencies is available here.

SeeThroughNY allows New Yorkers to examine government expenditures on the Internet. It includes the wages of 1.5 million employees of state government, municipalities, school districts and public authorities. Also posted are pensions for retirees outside NYC, teacher and school superintendent contracts, pork barrel projects, legislative expenditures and a bench-marking feature to compare local government spending.

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research is a leading a non-profit, 501(c)3 think tank. The Empire Center, based in Albany, launched SeeThroughNY on July 31, 2008. Since then, it has drawn more than 2.9 million unique visitors, who have downloaded millions of pages of data.

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