1. Who are the highest paid employees and how does that compare to the average worker?
Clark County has over 10,000 employees, and almost 500 people made more than Gov. Lombardo’s salary of $170,000 last year. That’s 135 more people than the year before.
More than half of them are fire fighters because they make tens of thousands in overtime. The average firefighter made $45,000 in overtime and other pay on top of their base pay — while many doubled their base pay. The average fire fighter made $126,000 – base pay $81,000 average, with average $45,000 other pay.
The other highly paid are heads of agencies like the county manager, director of aviation, medical examiner, CFO, public defender, DA but also lots of employees in those offices.
About 23% of employees made $100,000 or more in total pay.
But the average across the 10,000 employees is about $65,000.That includes part-time and seasonal employees, think hourly staff like lifeguards, maintenance workers, lower-level Parks and Rec staff.
So while you have over 500 people making more than the governor, 75% made less than $100,000.
2.How does this compare to the cities of Las Vegas, Henderson and N. Las Vegas?
A: We looked at the payroll of those cities last month, and they’re very similar to the county, they all had about an average pay of $65,000, and all had about 25% of their staff making $100,000 or more, so they’re all paying similarly.
In Clark County, OT, call back pay and other pay account for 17% of payroll, same as the cities, between 17% and 20% of their pay is for other pay beyond base salaries
Clark County has 10,000 employees, and the three cities collectively have 10,000 employees.
3. How does this compare to the rest of the country?
A: The average pay of Clark County and city workers at $65,000 is right about average for the rest of the country for local government pay, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The 500 people in Clark County government making $170,000 or more make the same as the national average for chief executives – except not all the 500 people are chief executives.
Nationally, management and top executives make between $115,000 and $125,000 – so the people making $170,000 or more in Clark County are a lot better paid than the national average.
In Clark County, the median household income is $70,000. Again, those people making the average, are average all the way – average for Clark County and for the country, while those highly paid are really highly paid, more so than their local government counterparts in the rest of the country.