Note: Massachusetts Comptroller now has an online Massachusetts salary database from 2010 onward, that is not yet handled by this program.
Year 2015 data thanks to Matthew Rocheleau, the Boston Globe staff reporter on the 22 Dec 2015 MBTA overtime article.
- extract text tables from PDF using Poppler
pdftotext - load with Pandas
- look for interesting aspects of the data.
For example, in 2014, the top MBTA earner was a Technician with an estimated $145 K of overtime on top of an $89 K salary. Excessive overtime can be a concern for worker performance and safety in any field, with possible drastic consequences for the public when working in sensitive areas like transportation and medicine.
The Washingtonian published a 9 Dec 2015 article by Luke Mullins and Michael Gaynor that explores at length issues with WMATA and overtime abuses.
Backpay is excluded as it represents a retroactive increase in base salary for the previous year. Backpay is last year's pay, paid out this year.
We currently have 2013-2015 salary data. Other trend analyses may find it useful to request prior years data.
MBTAsalary EMP-2015-Gross-Bpay-Ovt.xlsx 2015yields plots and the output:
Highest earning MBTA staff $256080 in 2015 was a Foreperson,Section, including estimated $171257 overtime.
| type | max | median | 90th | subtot | num |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| signal | 182049 | 117083 | 151384 | > 2e+07 | > 157 |
| maint | 256080 | > 97309 | 134881 | > 2e+08 | 1743 |
| ops | 145266 | > 96538 | 113948 | > 1e+07 | > 128 |
| police | 203553 | > 93684 | 136959 | > 3e+07 | > 271 |
| heavy | 178438 | > 80498 | 103964 | > 5e+07 | > 678 |
| bus-ft | 120281 | > 75542 | > 91287 | > 1e+08 | 1304 |
| subway | 158950 | > 73563 | > 94860 | > 4e+07 | > 628 |
| bus-pt | > 54738 | > 40934 | > 49124 | > 2e+07 | > 410 |
| rest | 231589 | > 87497 | 122225 | > 1e+08 | 1149 |
| all | 256080 | > 82319 | 118860 | > 5e+08 | 6468 |
MBTAsalary Wages2014.txt 2014yields plots and the output:
Highest earning MBTA staff $235194 in 2014 was a Technician,Power Equip, including estimated $145401 overtime.
| type | max | median | 90th | subtot | num |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| signal | 179689 | 110775 | 127210 | > 2e+07 | > 155 |
| police | 221910 | 107261 | 165080 | > 3e+07 | > 259 |
| maint | 235194 | > 95772 | 131344 | > 2e+08 | 1727 |
| ops | 138506 | > 93504 | 115208 | > 1e+07 | > 131 |
| heavy | 224458 | > 90492 | 120647 | > 6e+07 | > 670 |
| bus-ft | 196809 | > 88447 | 109504 | > 1e+08 | 1337 |
| subway | 185242 | > 84203 | 111710 | > 4e+07 | > 576 |
| bus-pt | > 66435 | > 33326 | > 52231 | > 1e+07 | > 345 |
| rest | 220000 | > 86463 | 129061 | > 1e+08 | 1132 |
| all | 235194 | > 89251 | 123618 | > 5e+08 | 6332 |
MBTAsalary "FOIA 14-11 final.txt" 2013yields plots and the output:
Highest earning MBTA staff $238770 in 2013 was a General Manager
| type | max | median | 90th | subtot | num |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| signal | 164161 | 109078 | 122121 | > 1e+07 | > 139 |
| police | 205400 | 108173 | 162941 | > 3e+07 | > 245 |
| maint | 209113 | > 87132 | 113655 | > 1e+08 | 1705 |
| ops | 127287 | > 82337 | > 98121 | > 1e+07 | > 131 |
| heavy | 154684 | > 72266 | > 99978 | > 5e+07 | > 654 |
| bus-ft | 192440 | > 69327 | > 87284 | > 9e+07 | 1279 |
| subway | 133214 | > 66729 | > 87589 | > 3e+07 | > 517 |
| bus-pt | > 53263 | > 34434 | > 42247 | > 1e+07 | > 358 |
| rest | 238770 | > 78120 | 112847 | > 9e+07 | 1098 |
| all | 238770 | > 75818 | 108951 | > 5e+08 | 6126 |
You will need to download and convert the salary data first. Each year's format is a little different.
We obtained this data from Matthew Rocheleau, the Boston Globe staff reporter on the 22 Dec 2015 MBTA overtime article. We anticipate a request for the whole year 2015 data once we're into 2016.
- Download 2014 MBTA salary data
- Extract text from PDF:
pdftotext -layout Wages2014.pdf
- Download 2013 MBTA salary data
- Extract text from PDF:
pdftotext -layout "FOIA 14-11 final.pdf" - The last three lines of this .txt file are missing a space between the salary and "2013". Just open in a text editor and manually add one additional space before 2013 in these last three lines.
