Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) employees were paid an average of $99,654 in 2017, up about 1.7 percent from 2016, according to payroll data added today to SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website.
The data, detailing the $814 million paid last year to the Authority’s 8,169 employees, also show:
- Police department employees were the highest paid group of non-executive Port Authority employees, with 1,776 officers averaging $132,414 last year. The next highest earners were in Aviation, where 1,436 employees averaged $102,719.
- A total of 214 police department employees were paid more than $200,000 during 2017, up from 198 during 2016. Fifty-one employees, including 42 police officers, were paid more than $250,000.
- Eight police officers were paid more than $300,000, with one (Sergeant Kevin Cottrell) collecting $214,835 in overtime, bringing his total pay to $403,028.
- One hundred police officers more than doubled their base pay with overtime last year. The average PANYNJ employee was paid $16,009 in overtime, while the average PANYNJ Police Department employee collected $37,053.
- Police officer Christian Urbina was paid $783,688 in 2017. Of that, $778,074 was the result of a recent court ruling that reversed his suspension without pay following his 2012 arrest on charges of groping a female restaurant patron and refusing to leave when approached by a New York City police officer. The charges have since been dismissed.
- After Urbina, the highest paid PANYNJ employees last year were: Sergeant Kevin Cotrell, who was paid $403,028 (including $214,835 in overtime); Detective Sergeant James McDaniels, who was paid $312,699 (including $143,507 in overtime); and Lieutenant Michael DeMartino, who was paid $312,141 (including $144,610).
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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