Allegheny County employees were paid $379 million in 2025, a 6% increase over 2024 and overtime pay rose by $2.1 million.
The county’s top salary earner was once again Chief Medical Examiner Ariel Goldschmidt at $298,700, followed closely by County Manager John Fournier. County Executive Sara Innamorato earned a lower salary than 27 people ($154,647, a 3% increase over 2024).
County employees earned about $38 million in overtime last year, up 6% from 2024. About a third of the overtime went to county jail employees, highlighting the jail’s chronic understaffing.
Some employees earned enough overtime to reach the ranks of the county’s top overall earners — though unlike in the City of Pittsburgh, nobody earned enough overtime to pass the top salary earners.
One correctional officer, Chrissian Pierce, earned more than $160,000 in overtime and more than doubled his regular salary.
Fewer redacted officer names among top earners
The county’s disclosures feature somewhat more transparency this year than last, after Pittsburgh’s Public Source went to court to challenge its practice of redacting many law enforcement employees’ names.
State law permits the county to redact names of law enforcement officers who are performing undercover work. Last year, the county interpreted that law to include officers who have done undercover work in the past or may in the future.
Public Source appealed their decision, and reached agreements with both the county police and the District Attorney’s office, limiting redactions to those who are performing undercover work or are foreseeably going to do so in the near future. The agreements resulted in far fewer redactions among those departments this year.
The sheriff’s office did not make a similar agreement and litigation continues over that department’s redactions.
Even so, there have been significant transparency gains: Last year, more than half of the top 40 gross earners had their names redacted. This year, the number was just six. In total, the number of county employees’ whose names were redacted dropped from 393 to 142.
The amount of total pay and overtime pay that went to unnamed employees decreased by two-thirds from 2024 to 2025 following Public Source’s legal efforts.
The county’s workforce diversity roughly mirrored that of the Allegheny County population last year, but white full-time employees earned a median salary $12,000 higher than Black employees (the next largest group). That’s a result of a lack of diversity in the well-compensated public safety departments.
Across the three law enforcement departments, 90% of employees were white last year, compared to 75% of county residents, and 6% were Black, which is half the county-wide rate.
In response to questions from Pittsburgh’s Public Source, Innamorato’s office did not comment.
A spokesperson for Sheriff Kevin Kraus wrote in response to questions that the office “is always exploring opportunities to increase diversity.” Spokesperson Mike Manko added that deputies’ earnings are determined by their union contract. Hiring decisions are made based on a civil service process including an exam and a physical agility test.
District Attorney Stephen Zappala’s office responded that the office “seeks to hire diverse candidates from a variety of law schools” locally and nationally.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
This story was fact-checked by Mia Hollie.
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