Two New York City employees received more than $300,000 in overtime payouts, according to fiscal year 2025 payroll data posted on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website. The city paid a total of $2.9 billion in overtime during fiscal year 2025. Overall, the city paid a total of $34.6 billion to its 549,246 employees1.
Forty-two employees received more than $200,000 in OT, and 2,140 employees received more than $100,000 in OT. The highest overtime recipients were:
- Jakub Karkowski, supervisor plumber at the Housing Authority, received $331,814 in OT and total annual pay of $465,034.
- Alfonso Tarantino, supervisor steamfitter at the Department of Corrections: $302,091 in OT for a total of $453,556.
- Rod Marcel, captain at the Department of Corrections: $288,441 in OT for a total of $436,252.
- Luis Gomez, supervisor plumber at the Housing Authority: $264,498 in OT for a total of $392,183.
- Robert Ventura, supervisor of mechanics at the Department of Corrections: $261,776 in OT for a total of $416,071.
More than 3,000 employees made more in overtime than their regular gross pay, with some making nearly three times their gross pay in overtime.
NYPD tops overtime payouts
The city Police Department had the largest overtime payout among city agencies at $1.09 billion, which was 18 percent of its total payroll of $6 billion. The Police Department accounted for nearly one-third of the city’s total OT.
Fire Department employees were paid more than $568 million in overtime. The Department of Corrections had the highest average overtime payouts at $45,627 per employee. The agency paid $363 million in OT payments, a 13 percent rise from its FY2024 total of $283 million.
Of the 100 city employees with the highest overtime payments, 59 were from the Department of Corrections, 16 from the FDNY, and 15 from the Housing Authority.
Overtime payments were heavily concentrated among a small share of employees. The top 19 percent of workers who earned overtime accounted for half of the city’s total overtime spending. Concentration varied by agency, with the Housing Authority showing the greatest imbalance — just 12.5 percent of its employees collected half of all overtime paid within the agency.
Two employees exceed 3,000 hours of OT
City employees logged over 40 million hours of overtime, including 49 workers who clocked more than 2,000 hours and two who clocked more than 3,000 hours. Kashwayne Burnett, bookkeeper at the Department of Social Services clocked the highest overtime of 3,421 hours plus 1,820 regular hours, for a total of 5,241 hours. Burnett was paid a total of $240,345, including $60,481 in regular pay plus $175,811 in OT.
His total nominally amounts to 14.3 hours per day for 365 days with no time off. It should be noted that the overtime hours do not necessarily equate to hours worked. Certain provisions of collective-bargaining agreements enable employees to accumulate overtime hours far beyond what is physically possible to work. Clauses such as minimum call-back guarantees, holiday and standby premiums, and payouts for unused or retroactive time allow staff to bill large amounts of “overtime” pay without equivalent hours on duty.
Total pay exceeds $34.6 billion
Overall, 482 City employees’ total pay exceeded $300,000, while a total of 13,086 City employees were paid more than $200,000. One-fourth (149,062) of all employees received six-figures annual totals.
The total pay figures include several categories beyond salary2, such as overtime and lump-sum payouts resulting from legal settlements.
Among employees with the highest salaries, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos topped the list with an annual salary of $428,280.
A total of 2,074 employees received a total pay larger than Mayor Eric Adam’s salary of $258,012. Other notable salaries on the list were:
- Jessica Tisch, NYPD commissioner, with a salary of $286,627
- Randy Mastro, first deputy mayor, $324,144
- Ydanis Rodriguez Jr., Department of Transportation commissioner, $295,449
- Brad Lander, NYC comptroller, $209,050
- Adrienne Adams, City Council speaker, $164,031
- The five district attorneys received $232,600 each
Overall, the highest total pay went to Peter Lamia-Liander, chief marine engineer at the Department of Transportation, who collected $646,305, including $423,468 in “other pay”. A new contract, signed in 2023, made Staten Island Ferry marine engineers eligible for retroactive pay since 2010, which likely amounted to high additional pay for some employees at the Department of Transportation. The next highest payouts went to:
- William O’Neill, chief marine engineer at the Department of Transportation, received a total of $553,031 ($40,380 in OT and $368,945 in other pay).
- Minerva Caroli, supervisor plumber at the Housing Authority, a total of $519,634 including $377,564 in other pay.
- Samuel Resultan, chief marine engineer at the Department of Transportation, a total of $489,392, including $73,977 in OT and $241,571 in other pay.
- Jakub Karkowski, supervisor plumber at the Housing Authority, paid a total of $465,034, including $331,814 in OT and $15,165 in other pay.
The Department of Education had by far the largest workforce of any city agency. Nearly half of its 288,210 employees were daily or hourly workers, including per-session teachers, paraprofessionals, and support staff. The department spent an average of $50,725 per employee, for a total payroll exceeding $14 billion.
Among other large agencies, the Fire Department paid an average of $127,578 to its 19,333 employees, while NYPD paid an average of $108,460 to its 55,264 workers. The Office of Collective Bargaining reported the highest average pay overall of $163,166 for its 15 employees.
Employees on more than one payroll
While employee home addresses and other personal identifying information are treated as confidential, the system does provide original hire dates for each individual on the payroll. An analysis of this data found that 81,736 individuals were paid by two or more agencies.
In most cases, the pay amounts reported for individuals listed under multiple agencies or positions suggest the person changed jobs during the year, worked in multiple boroughs for the same agency, or had part-time jobs in addition to their full-time employment. Most individuals in this category were part-timers, such as per-session teachers at the Department of Education, whose combined salaries were well below $100,000. However, 1,065 employees collected total pay of over $200,000, while seven employees collected over $300,000.
This includes Todd Myles, a teacher in the Department of Education, who received a total of $492,002 for two assignments ($405,039 and $86,963). David Johnson, a corrections officer at the Department of Corrections received $407,352 for two assignments in Queens and Manhattan which paid $208,140 and $199,211 respectively.
Data Notes:
- The data in this report include only employees who received more than $0 during the fiscal year.
- “Salaries” reflect regular pay during the fiscal year. Actual gross pay may vary based on employment dates or additional earnings. “Total Pay” includes all compensation, such as salary, overtime, and lump-sum or settlement payments.
The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.
