How much do county employees make?
Wednesday, Mar 1, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Counties in this state employ about 60,000 people both full and part time, so the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform took a look at employee wages…
Cook County has the highest average employee salary at $64,378, which is nearly double the average salary for all 102 counties at $34,167. This number includes both full-time and part-time employees. Payroll information does not necessarily include matching pension payments, healthcare, or other benefits.
Cook’s top ranking is followed closely by most suburban counties, plus a handful of Downstate counties like Randolph, Madison and Boone.
The lowest was Edwards County, with an average annual salary of just $7,685. That’s not a typo.
* Now, on to per capita costs, which might be a better way to look at it…
On average, each Illinois county pays their employees about $224 per capita (the number of residents in the county) each year. It is important to note that significant portions of county payroll can be funded by sources other than tax revenue. County payroll budgets can sometimes include county-run nursing homes, hospitals, parks, or other public services. While total payroll per capita does not directly indicate the cost of county government for individual taxpayers, it provides a useful measure of the cost of county employees compared to the local population.
Based on total payroll per capita, the size of county government ranges widely. Pulaski County pays the most, relative to their population, with a per-capita payroll cost of $649 per year, while Mercer County pays the least at $80 a year. Cook County spends more than average, at $307 a year.
* Top tens…
Notice that Cook isn’t in the top ten (it’s ranked 11th) and Edwards isn’t in the bottom ten (19th from the bottom).
The full list is here.
- BK Bro - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 12:13 pm:
Stats like this present interesting anecdotal info, but they don’t necessary correlate to “size of government” data. For example, some counties (especially smaller ones) contract out a lot of engineering services. This can really skew the numbers. From cost perspective, money going to a contractor or a county employee really makes no difference to a tax payer.
- Skeptical - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 12:22 pm:
Do we have data on their health insurance costs and coverages?
- OkComputer - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 12:25 pm:
Given the requirements that state law puts on Counties - specifically the responsibility to support our fellow Illinoisans in need - even a straight per capita analysis doesn’t even cut it.
It should be weighted further still by the populations county governments have the job to serve.
- Edwards county - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 12:36 pm:
Just FYI- Edwards County does not provide insurance to county employees, that’s right no one, not even the sheriff or the deputies has insurance paid for by the county. In fact, a group plan isn’t even offered. Also, the cost is so low because of the number of part time employees. A lot of the offices have people only working 10 hours a week to do one specific job. We also do a lot of outsourcing for specific purposes. Also, the highway engineer is joint with another county, and most of his salary comes from the county road districts, not the county’s budget directly, my guess is this makes him look like a part time employee. The elected positions have salaries that generally fit into the cost of living for the area.
- Workin' - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 1:06 pm:
Unclear from the source, but it would be useful to confirm if these figures include the 700+ physicians and medical residents Cook employs in its hospital system.
- Huh? - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 1:10 pm:
“highway engineer is joint with another county, and most of his salary comes from the county road districts, not the county’s budget directly,”
IDOT has a budget line item called “County Engineers Salary”. If the county pays the county engineer 95% of the recommended salary, the FHWA will pay half. The remainder generally is paid from the monthly MFT allotment.
In the case where 2 counties share an engineer, the percent amount of the recommended salary paid by each County is reduced. But the aggregate salary still must meet the 95 percent threshold.
The road districts don’t pay the county engineer salary. What happens is that the county highway department will charge a road district for engineering on a specific project. Generally it is a percentage of the total costs associated with the project.
- Robert the 1st - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 1:25 pm:
Wow, the county I used to work for has an average salary of under $27k. Still beats the $9/hour they paid me!
- Dr X - Wednesday, Mar 1, 17 @ 4:07 pm:
IPI headline on Thursday = County employees highest paid on planet! Average wage 90,000 while you taxpayers rot away.
Of somethin’ like that.