State paid $1B in OT last year

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It cost New York taxpayers nearly a billion dollars to cover the overtime for state employees last year.

That’s part of the findings from a review of state salary data posted Thursday to seethroughny.net, a government transparency website operated by the Albany-based think tank, the Empire Center for Public Policy. 

In its analysis of the 2021 state government payroll, the Empire Center determined state agencies paid $953.6 million in overtime during the calendar year. That’s $100 million, or about 12 percent, higher than in 2020. 

According to the Empire Center, 228 state employees were paid $100,000 or more in overtime in 2021. A total of 1,443 state employees, including 1,412 executive branch workers, were paid more than the governor’s salary of $225,000 last year. 

Overall salaries for state employees rose 6.1 percent, from $64,124 to $68,292.

The data examined by the Empire Center included 2021 base pay rates and total pay for more than 289,000 employees who worked in the state’s executive, legislative and judicial branches. 

Ninety-eight of the state’s 100 top earners worked at the State University of New York (SUNY) or City University of New York (CUNY). 

The highest-paid state employee was Dr. Robert Corona Jr., the CEO of SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, who received $823,933. 

Two University at Buffalo coaches ranked among the 100 highest paid SUNY employees, James Whitesell (basketball, $441,618) and Lance Leipold (​​football, $419,632.) Liepold has since left UB and is coaching at Kansas University at triple the salary.

Mark Scheer