A total of 864 New York City employees last year collected more than $100,000 each in overtime, with nine of them—including three NYCHA plumbers—collecting over $200,000 each, according to new data posted today on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.
The data, detailing employee pay during the fiscal year that ended June 30, show agency overtime last year totaled $2.53 billion, compared to $2.44 billion in fiscal 2022 and $2.23 billion in fiscal 2018.
Three-quarters of the 864 employees who collected at least $100,000 in overtime worked in three agencies: Corrections (342), FDNY (170), and NYCHA (138).
The City’s overtime champion was NYCHA plumber Dhimiter Nushi, whose 1,955 hours of overtime added $245,420 to his pay, which totaled $372,669.
Eighty of the employees with $100,000 or more in overtime were plumbers, including supervisor plumbers and helpers. Sixty-four of these plumbers worked for NYCHA.
A total of 417 employees were paid more than Mayor Eric Adams’ $258,750 salary, including 29 NYCHA plumbers.
Corrections was a hotspot for overtime, with employees collecting an average of $28,388, which helped push total pay to an average of $107,170. By comparison, Corrections overtime in 2018 averaged $15,716 and total pay averaged $82,236.
Corrections overtime overall rose to $294 million, up from $260 million last year and $223 million five years ago.
Looking at all agencies, 83 employees were paid for at least 2,000 hours in overtime, including three who were paid for more than 3,000 hours each—amounts that would reflect having worked at least 96 hours per week every week of the year.
Overall, payroll across all agencies totaled $31.1 billion, which was down slightly from $31.7 billion in 2022 and, adjusting for inflation, below 2018’s $27.5 billion payroll. These figures do not reflect the cost of employee benefits, which include defined-benefit pensions and no-cost employee and retiree health coverage.
The highest-paid City employee last year was Dayrell C. Thomas, who retired in December as Director of Operations for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Thomas was paid $579,096, including $479,358 in “other pay.”
Unlike New York state government and virtually all local governments and school districts, New York City makes an electronic copy of its payroll available annually.
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