One in every 10 Illinois state employees earned more than $100,000 last year with more than 100 workers doubling their pay with overtime or compensatory time, according to a newspaper report published on Sunday.
The employees included judges, prison guards and nurses, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which cited public records in its report. The newspaper reports that 682 workers made more than former Gov. Pat Quinn's approximately $177,000 salary in 2014. Most of them were judges.
Nearly $4.8 billion of taxpayer money was given to 82,104 full-time, part-time and contract workers on the state's payroll.
Among the highest paid was the chief investment officer of the state Teachers Retirement System who earned nearly $450,000. TRS is the pension fund for suburban Chicago and downstate public educators.
TRS spokesman David Urbanek defended the salaries of the agency, saying the employees have "highly specialized skills" that "in the private sector . . . would demand salaries several times higher than what executives earn from TRS."
The newspaper's report comes as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner blames part of the state's fiscal woes — including claims of inflated salaries — on labor unions.
The Sun-Times found that more than 80 percent of the highest-paid employees weren't union members. Less than half of 8,854 state workers making $100,000 were union workers in state agencies that Rauner now overseas. Those making more than $100,000 included plumbers, child-welfare workers, court-reporting supervisors and highway maintenance workers.
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The newspaper also found that 13 union workers received more than $90,000 in extra pay, mostly by working overtime. They included nurses, corrections lieutenants and a stationary engineer.
Rauner's administration declined to comment to the Sun-Times.
The newspaper matched the names of nearly 42,000 union workers against the state records supplied by the Illinois comptroller's office. The Sun-Times count doesn't include state university employees.
