(Click on figures to enlarge)
By Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner and Nick Binotti | Wirepoints
Over 140,000 Illinois government workers and retirees took in more than $100,000 in salaries or pensions in 2023, according to data collected by Wirepoints via FOIA. That’s more than a 50% jump since Open the Books counted 94,000 government members with $100K compensation back in 2018. The list includes active workers and pensioners from all levels of state and local government, with the exception of Illinois’ 650 downstate public safety plans, for which Wirepoints did not obtain individual data.
The teacher category led the list due to the scale of the state’s education system. More than 33,000 active teachers and administrators across the state made more than $100,000, while another nearly 23,000 pensioners took in as much. The state’s universities also had 23,000 active workers and retirees making over $100,000 last year. And it was the same for more than 17,000 current and former state employees.
And as we point out in detail further below, the individual compensation numbers get big, too. Peter Murphy, President and CEO of Illinois’ Association of Park Districts made nearly $468,000. Brad Cole of the Illinois Municipal League took in over $505,000. Kent Custer, Chief Investment Officer at Illinois Police Officers’ Pension Investment Fund, received $333,000. And Brian Townsend at the Village of Schaumburg made $343,000.
Those big compensation numbers are similar to the k-12 superintendent numbers we reported on recently in our piece titled New Trier School District set to produce the next $8 million superintendent pensioner. Take home pay for the top active and retired superintendents ranges from $300,000 to $500,000.
In all, Illinois has more than 100,000 active workers making more than $100,000, while more than 43,000 retirees take in pensions bigger than $100K. Add them all up and they now total more than 140,000, about the population of Rockford, Illinois’ fifth-largest city.
Read more here.
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