Why Illinois Is in Trouble – High Paid Public Employees Cost Taxpayers $17 Billion

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Real Clear Policy

There are 132,188 public employees and retirees in Illinois who earned $100,000 or more last year.

Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found almost 500 educators in Illinois public schools had salaries between $200,000 and $439,000. Small-towns city managers made up to $341,300, and three doctors at the University of Illinois at Chicago earned between $1 million and $2.1 million.

 

This is as crime increases, test scores drop among public school students, and inflation decimates private-sector paychecks. This doesn’t stop the Illinois public employee class from living the good life.

Well-paid barbers working for State Corrections trimmed off $104,000, janitors at the Chicago Transit Authority cleaned up with $143,634 paychecks, bus drivers in Chicago picked up $242,812 in pay, and suburban community college presidents made $418,677, we found from payroll data.

In 2021, 26,904 educators earned six-figure salaries, while 16,592 retirees pocketed $100,000 pensions. That’s as test scores dropped, with only 31 percent of students reading at grade level. There were 18 school superintendents who made $300,000, and another 18 retired school superintendents received $300,000 in retirement pensions.