Pittsburgh spent more money than it collected in 2025 for many reasons, including lower-than-expected revenue from payroll preparation taxes and interest earnings, and the state high court striking down the city’s “jock tax.” It didn’t help, though, that the city spent $3 million more than it budgeted for payroll.

The city’s biggest cost center is compensation for its more than 3,000 employees. And city employees earned a whopping $71 million in overtime in 2025, according to pay records obtained by Pittsburgh’s Public Source. That includes payment for so-called secondary employment — moonlighting done by public safety employees, coordinated by the city but paid by entities like pro sports teams, concerts and smaller organizations that stage events.

• View the entire dataset of 2025 city employee pay here.

The city controller told Public Source that even without the secondary pay by private entities, city-funded overtime ran $20 million over budget. Last year was the second in a row in which extra compensation reached that historically high level.

“We can’t make good fiscal decisions if we’re not being realistic about things we know we will have to pay for,” said Controller Rachael Heisler, who repeatedly criticized former Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration for underestimating the amount of overtime in the budget. 

She said the problems associated with high overtime are not only financial: It forces first responders to work longer and more dangerous hours.

City employees earned $329 million last year, factoring in all overtime and bonus pay,  amounting to about half the city’s operating budget.

Public Source annually files records requests with the city, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Public Schools to learn how taxpayer money is spent and earned. This time, we found city EMS Bureau employees took home an average of $38,697 apiece in overtime pay, with Police and Fire Bureau workers averaging nearly as much.

Robert Swartzwelder, the president of the police officers’ union, said the city’s schedule of major events like the marathon, festivals and parades creates an “overworked structure” for the department.

“The only way the city can have these events is to increase overtime significantly, work officers longer hours than they’re accustomed to and it puts a strain on city finances,” Swartzwelder said, adding that the upcoming NFL Draft will cause “massive strain.”

More than 100 employees earned more from overtime than their base salary; two earned more than double their base salary in overtime and one earned more than triple. Though no city employee earned a base salary of more than $164,236, 105 employees took home more than $200,000 last year.

Jon Atkinson, president of the paramedics union, said the medics who work large amounts of overtime are vital to keeping the system functional. While some of the overtime totals include money earned from moonlighting at private events, Atkinson said the bureau’s top earners mostly earn overtime on city time.

“They’ll work 18 to 20 hours a day for literally weeks straight,” Atkinson said of Jerome Wasek and Anthony DeSantis, who earned $271,229 and $259,548 in overtime, respectively. “Those guys get five weeks of vacation, they might take a week or two off. They work like horses.”

The median salary of full-time city workers last year was $77,043, almost identical to the median household income in the metropolitan area. The police, fire and EMS bureaus had higher median salaries

The top base salaries last year went, as usual, to police and fire leadership. Former Mayor Ed Gainey’s salary was the 23rd highest among city employees at $136,219.

The diversity of the city’s workforce is roughly equivalent to that of the city’s population. One exception: The city is roughly 7% Asian, compared to only 1% of city workers.

A bigger disparity exists in the city’s public safety bureaus, where 83% of employees were white in 2025 and 86% were male. (Overall, 63% of the city populace is white, and 48% is male.)

The public safety bureaus account for most of the city’s high-paying jobs, so their lack of diversity means the city’s white and male employees make median and average salaries significantly higher than their counterparts. For example, white employees made a median salary of about $79,000 last year, compared to $53,000 for Black employees. An almost identical spread existed between male and female employees.

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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How historic overtime payments in 2025 drove up Pittsburgh’s budget 

by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source
March 24, 2026

<h1>How historic overtime payments in 2025 drove up Pittsburgh’s budget </h1> <p class="byline">by Charlie Wolfson, Pittsburgh's Public Source <br />March 24, 2026</p> <p>Pittsburgh spent more money than it collected in 2025 <a href="https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-finances-city-budget-controller-mayor-federal-funds/">for many reasons</a>, including lower-than-expected revenue from payroll preparation taxes and interest earnings, and the state high court striking down the city’s “jock tax.” It didn’t help, though, that the city spent $3 million more than it budgeted for payroll.</p> <p>The city’s biggest cost center is compensation for its more than 3,000 employees. And city employees earned a whopping $71 million in overtime in 2025, according to pay records obtained by Pittsburgh’s Public Source. That includes payment for so-called secondary employment — moonlighting done by public safety employees, coordinated by the city but paid by entities like pro sports teams, concerts and smaller organizations that stage events.</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li><a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Q5oVaoz9b24gUUgLo3LkftavOfhtDkVPeJpk8qT4DVE/edit?usp=sharing">View the entire dataset of 2025 city employee pay here</a>.</li> </ul> <p>The city controller told Public Source that even without the secondary pay by private entities, city-funded overtime ran $20 million over budget. Last year was the second in a row in which extra compensation reached that historically high level.</p> <p>“We can’t make good fiscal decisions if we’re not being realistic about things we know we will have to pay for,” said Controller Rachael Heisler, who repeatedly criticized former Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration for underestimating the amount of overtime in the budget.&nbsp;</p> <p>She said the problems associated with high overtime are not only financial: It forces first responders to work longer and more dangerous hours.</p> <div class="flourish-embed flourish-chart" data-src="visualisation/27967546"><img src="https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/27967546/thumbnail" width="100%" alt="visualization" /></div> <p>City employees earned $329 million last year, factoring in all overtime and bonus pay,&nbsp; amounting to about half the city’s operating budget.</p> <p>Public Source annually files records requests with the city, Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Public Schools to learn how taxpayer money is spent and earned. This time, we found city EMS Bureau employees took home an average of $38,697 apiece in overtime pay, with Police and Fire Bureau workers averaging nearly as much.</p> <p>Robert Swartzwelder, the president of the police officers’ union, said the city’s schedule of major events like the marathon, festivals and parades creates an “overworked structure” for the department.</p> <p>“The only way the city can have these events is to increase overtime significantly, work officers longer hours than they’re accustomed to and it puts a strain on city finances,” Swartzwelder said, adding that the upcoming NFL Draft will cause “massive strain.”</p> <p>More than 100 employees earned more from overtime than their base salary; two earned more than double their base salary in overtime and one earned more than triple. Though no city employee earned a base salary of more than $164,236, 105 employees took home more than $200,000 last year.</p> <p>Jon Atkinson, president of the paramedics union, said the medics who work large amounts of overtime are vital to keeping the system functional. While some of the overtime totals include money earned from moonlighting at private events, Atkinson said the bureau’s top earners mostly earn overtime on city time.</p> <p>“They’ll work 18 to 20 hours a day for literally weeks straight,” Atkinson said of Jerome Wasek and Anthony DeSantis, who earned $271,229 and $259,548 in overtime, respectively. “Those guys get five weeks of vacation, they might take a week or two off. They work like horses.”</p> <p>The median salary of full-time city workers last year was $77,043, almost identical to the median household income in the metropolitan area. The police, fire and EMS bureaus had higher median salaries</p> <p>The top base salaries last year went, as usual, to police and fire leadership. Former Mayor Ed Gainey’s salary was the 23rd highest among city employees at $136,219.</p> </p> <p>The diversity of the city’s workforce is roughly equivalent to that of the city’s population. One exception: The city is roughly 7% Asian, compared to only 1% of city workers.</p> <p>A bigger disparity exists in the city’s public safety bureaus, where 83% of employees were white in 2025 and 86% were male. (Overall, 63% of the city populace is white, and 48% is male.)</p> <p>The public safety bureaus account for most of the city’s high-paying jobs, so their lack of diversity means the city’s white and male employees make median and average salaries significantly higher than their counterparts. For example, white employees made a median salary of about $79,000 last year, compared to $53,000 for Black employees. An almost identical spread existed between male and female employees.</p> <p><em>Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:charlie@publicsource.org">charlie@publicsource.org</a>.</em></p> <p><em>This story was fact-checked by Mia Hollie.</em></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/city-pittsburgh-salaries-historic-overtime-earnings/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org&quot;&gt;Pittsburgh&#039;s Public Source&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.publicsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/cropped-ps_circle_favicon_blue.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://www.publicsource.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=1330678&amp;amp;ga4=G-CCLXQK5C14&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://www.publicsource.org/city-pittsburgh-salaries-historic-overtime-earnings/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/publicsource.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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