Question 1: Give us the topline numbers on the payroll.

 

This week our team reviewed Baltimore’s 2024 payroll of over $1 billion.

 

280 people in the entire city workforce made $200,000 or more.

 

Almost all of them — 237 — worked in the police department or fire department.  Most of them are not commissioners, just rank and file officers.

 

That includes the 15 highest paid people in the city.  

 

 

Question 2: Why the fire and police? Why are other departments making so much less?

 

As of last summer the police department had under 2,000 employees. It needs 2,600 to be fully staffed.

 

Many fire and police officers are earning up to triple their actual salary because of overtime and other additional payments.

 

We actually found 88 people who made more just in overtime than they did from salary.

 

David Lunsford is a paramedic with the fire department — not a commissioner or any sort of top official. His salary is only $113,000, but last year he earned $358,000 bc of overtime. That was $35,000 more than anyone else in Baltimore, and it’s the fourth-highest earnings in the history of the city. 

 

(Mayor makes $214k).

 

 

Question 3: Is it normal for city workers to triple their salaries through overtime? What’s happening in other cities?

 

In Boston, police officers are earning up to $425,000. In Philadelphia some made over $500,000. Washington DC tops out around $350,000 like Baltimore. 

 

That’s more than in Baltimore, but their earnings are coming from high base salaries. They’re not tripling their earnings from overtime.

 

Remember, overtime gets paid out at time and a half. So if Baltimore workers are getting a higher percentage of their earnings from overtime, it means taxpayers are spending the same amount for fewer hours of work than they are in other cities. If the department fixed their staffing shortage, things might get better.