CA Controller publishes 2023 payroll data for local governments

Of 11,946 Contra Costa County employees, Administrator highest paid at $494,001

SACRAMENTO — State Controller Malia M. Cohen has released the 2023 self-reported payroll data for cities and counties on the Government Compensation in California website. The data covers 517,358 positions and a total of more than $40.72 billion in 2023 wages.

Users of the site can:

• View compensation levels on maps and search by region;
• Narrow results by name of the entity or by job title; and
• Export raw data or custom reports.

The newly published data includes 462 cities and 52 counties. The City of Hayward had the highest average city employee wage in California, followed by Atherton, Pleasant Hill, and Beverly Hills. The counties with the highest average employee wages were Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Monterey, and Ventura. The city employee with the highest total wages in California was a police officer for the City of Santa Monica, while the top 20 highest-paid county employees work in health care professions.

Data for Contra Costa County show 11,946 employees worked sometime during the year and were paid $1,137,258,564 in wages and $470,014,925 in retirement and health contribution. The highest paid employee was the County Administrator with $494,001 total pay, which included $466,378 in regular pay, $20,423 in lump sum payment, described as paid to the employee for one-time cash-outs (including, but not limited to, paid excess vacation and sick leave, and legal settlements), and $7,200 for other pay, described as any other pay not reported as regular pay, overtime pay, or lump-sum pay such as car allowances, meeting stipends, incentive pay, bonus pay, etc.

California law requires cities, counties, and special districts to annually report compensation data to the State Controller. The State Controller also maintains and publishes state and CSU salary data. Five counties and 20 cities failed to file or provided incomplete or late information. San Francisco is both a city and a county; the website reports San Francisco as a city.

Since the website launched in 2010, State Controller’s Office has published pay and benefit information on more than two million government jobs in California, as reported annually by each entity.

As the chief fiscal officer of California, Controller Cohen is responsible for accountability and disbursement of the state’s financial resources. The Controller has independent auditing authority over government agencies that spend state funds. She is a member of numerous financing authorities, and fiscal and financial oversight entities including the Franchise Tax Board. She also serves on the boards for the nation’s two largest public pension funds. Follow the Controller on X at @CAController and on Facebook at California State Controller’s Office.