Eight local government employees in the Mohawk Valley had gross pensionable earnings of more than $200,000 in fiscal year 2025-26, according to payroll data submitted to the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS). Four were county elected officials and three were Oneida County correction officers. The highest paid was Christina Pearson, a Montgomery County elected official, at $231,709.

Statewide, the 179,222 employees of New York’s counties, cities, towns and villages outside New York City were paid a total of $12.0 billion in fiscal year 2025-26, an average of $67,037, according to the Empire Center’s annual What They Make 2026 report. The Mohawk Valley’s 7,676 employees averaged $49,987, eighth among the state’s nine regions outside New York City. Its general employees, who averaged $46,180, were the lowest paid of any region.

Local governments in Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida and Schoharie counties paid a total of $384 million. A total of 8.9 percent of their employees were paid $100,000 or more, compared with about one in five statewide.

Among the findings:

• County elected officials held four of the region’s five highest-paid positions. Oneida County correction officers held five of the top ten and 11 of the top 25.
• Oneida County’s 1,542 employees averaged $65,929, the highest of any county in the region and tenth in the state, and 18.2 percent were paid $100,000 or more. Herkimer County’s employees averaged $33,199, the lowest of any county in the state.
• Utica had the highest city average in the region, at $76,551. Its 276 police and fire employees averaged $100,808, the highest in the region, followed by the Town of New Hartford ($93,970) and Johnstown ($88,658).
• New Hartford’s 117 town employees averaged $48,179, the highest of any town in the region with at least 25 employees.
• Local government payrolls cost $892 per resident in the Mohawk Valley, the lowest of any region. Hamilton County, the state’s least populous, was the exception: its county, town and village payrolls came to $3,025 per resident, the highest of any county in the state. The Town of Webb, home to the Old Forge resort area, spent $1,943 per year-round resident, the second-highest of any town in the state.

Ten Highest-Paid Local Government Employees – Mohawk Valley

County correction officers and deputy sheriffs are classified as general employees in the NYSLRS data. The amounts listed do not include fringe benefits such as health insurance and employer pension contributions. A Town of Warren employee reported at $350,000, far above the prior year's pay in records matching his name and hire date, is excluded from these figures; NYSLRS referred questions about the figure to the employer.

Payroll records for every Mohawk Valley county, city, town, village and special district can be searched at the Empire Center's transparency website, SeeThroughNY.net. The full statewide report, What They Make 2026, includes searchable pay figures for every local government outside New York City.

The Empire Center is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank based in Albany.