BGA Updates Popular Payroll Database With 2011 Salaries

Want to know how much a public employee is paid?

Then ask the Better Government Association (BGA).

The BGA—a non-partisan, non-profit government watchdog—has updated its popular Payroll Database with 2011 salary data.

That means up-to-date compensation levels for thousands of public-sector workers throughout Illinois are now accessible at www.bettergov.org as part of the BGA’s free (and searchable) database, which is the only one of its kind.

>> VIEW THE UPDATED BGA PAYROLL DATABASE

“The Payroll Database is designed to help the public keep tabs on government tabs—specifically, how much public agencies are paying their employees,” said BGA President and CEO Andy Shaw.

“Personnel costs are often the biggest expenses within public agencies, and taxpayers have a right to know how their dollars are spent—or whether they’re being misspent,” added Shaw.

Improving transparency in government is among the BGA’s top priorities, and the Payroll Database is an outgrowth of that effort.

Among the local units of government reflected in the database:

• City of Chicago
• Cook County
• State of Illinois
• Chicago Public Schools
• Chicago Transit Authority
• Chicago Park District
• Chicago Housing Authority
• City Colleges of Chicago

The BGA also has expanded the database in recent years to include information on public workers in the collar counties, and elsewhere in the Midwest.

For instance, salary levels also are included for state workers in Wisconsin, Missouri and Indiana.

All data was obtained under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and other open records laws.

For questions about the database, please contact Patrick Rehkamp at prehkamp@bettergov.org or Solomon Lieberman at slieberman@bettergov.org.