California state worker pay database updated with 2022 wages, overtime
The Sacramento Bee’s State Worker pay database has been updated with data for 2022.
The data is searchable by employee name and state department, and includes 2022 salary information for civil service employees along with those who work for California State University. It includes 2021 salary information for those who work at the University of California. Data on 2022 University of California salaries will be available later this year.
The state paid roughly 264,000 civil service employees a total of about $23.6 billion in the 2022 calendar year, according to the updated pay data from the state Controller’s Office. That includes full-time, part-time and intermittent workers, and excludes employees at California State University and the University of California.
The total is up about 8.5% from 2021, when the state paid roughly $21.8 billion to civil service workers. While last year’s pay increase is big by historical standards, it roughly matches the pace of inflation from July 2021 to July 2022. In addition, the state added a little more than 1,000 civil service workers to its payroll last year.
The Bee was able to match 2021 and 2022 pay for about 217,000 civil service employees. The median pay raise among those workers was 11.3%, including overtime and bonuses.
The state paid civil service workers about $20.8 billion in 2020.
Investment officers at the state’s retirement systems again topped the list of highest-paid employees. California’s rules for paying people in those jobs differ from the rest of the state’s civil service, to enable the retirement funds to hire in the competitive world of finance.
Like last year, top officers at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System received the biggest payouts.
Five of the 10 highest-paid state employees worked at CalSTRS, according to the data. The system’s longtime chief investment officer, Christopher Ailman, topped the list with $1.7 million in total pay. That included about $612,000 in regular pay and $1.09 million in other pay.
CalSTRS Deputy Chief Investment Officer Scott Chan earned $1.14 million, according to the data, followed by CalPERS Deputy Chief Investment Officer Daniel Bienvenue with earnings of $938,000. Bienvenue worked as CalPERS’ interim chief investment officer in the 2021 calendar year, a period in which the pension fund enjoyed high earnings.
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State civil service workers based in Sacramento County earned about $7.7 billion in 2022 pay, far more than state workers in any other county.
Fifteen state worker bargaining units have contracts that expire in 2023. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget earmarked $487 million to cover pay raises that were negotiated and ratified in existing contracts, but it’s unclear whether workers bargaining this year will receive significant pay increases given the state’s projected $22.5 billion budget shortfall.
