What public jobs really pay
What teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses, correctional officers, 911 dispatchers, social workers and water operators earn, employer by employer, from official pay records. Covering California, New York, Utah, Kentucky and Georgia so far.
Which states can you look up so far?
California, New York, Utah, Kentucky and Georgia, with more to follow as we collect each state's pay records. Pick a state on the map for every job there, or a job in the list.
California
Every reporting school district and every city, county and special district, plus the University of California and state departments for nurses, correctional officers and librarians, and the state universities and community colleges for librarians
New York
Every school district for teachers; for the other jobs, New York City and the counties, cities and authorities that publish their pay
Utah
Cities, towns, counties and districts in the state's pay file, with the State of Utah as one employer, and the public universities for librarians; teachers follow
Kentucky
Every school district for teachers, with its salary schedule; for the other jobs, Louisville Metro Government
Georgia
Every school district for teachers, school librarians and school social workers; the state prisons; and Fulton County for its jail, 911 center and libraries
What does each public job pay in California, New York, Utah, Kentucky and Georgia?
Each state's figure leads to its page. Teachers: average salary (California's on the schedule, New York's and Kentucky's of classroom teachers, Georgia's total pay of full-year teachers). Every other job: average total pay of people who worked the full year, overtime included. New York and Utah combine each employer's newest year; Georgia's social workers are school social workers.
How to read public pay figures: base pay, overtime and the median
Total pay is more than the salary
Total pay is everything an employer paid in the year: base pay plus overtime, lump sums and other pay. California police officers who worked the full year averaged $125,146 in base pay and $179,627 in total pay in 2025.2
Some jobs run on overtime, others hardly have any
California's full-year 911 dispatchers averaged $23,178 in overtime; social workers $4,970, and the middle social worker less than $1,000.2 Comparing two jobs by total pay means comparing their overtime too.
Average or median: what's the difference?
The average adds up everyone's pay and divides it by the number of people. The median is the person in the middle: half earned more, half less. A few very high earners pull the average up but barely move the median. The middle California police officer was paid $26,189 in overtime, while the average was $36,839.2
Teacher figures are salaries, without overtime
For teachers, the figures are salaries on the district's schedule: what the job pays for the regular school year, without extra pay for coaching or summer school. They aren't comparable with the total pay of the other jobs.
Only people who worked the full year
Pay figures leave out people who started, left or worked part time during the year, so a new hire's half year doesn't drag an average down. Headcounts include everyone. Each state's page explains how it tells who worked the full year.
Some states report one wage figure
Not every state splits overtime out. Where the pay file has one wage figure per person, as Utah's does, the pages show total pay only, with overtime inside it.
How Public Paycheck handles salary data
- Official records onlyEvery figure comes from a public record, and every page names its sources.
- No names, everEvery figure covers at least five people, so none describes one person.
- No guessingWhere a figure is missing, the page says why: not reported, fewer than 5 people, or left out by our rules.
Sources for the figures on this page
- California Department of Education, Selected Certificated Salaries and Related Statistics, 2024-25: Table I: statewide average salary paid.
- State Controller's Office, Government Compensation in California, 2025: wages of every police officer, firefighter, registered nurse, correctional officer, librarian, paramedic, EMT, 911 dispatcher, social worker and water operator position.
- New York State Education Department, Personnel Master File statistical run 2024-25: classroom teachers' pay in every school district.
- Kentucky Department of Education, School District Personnel Information, 2025-26: average classroom teacher salary in every school district, averaged across districts.
- Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, Open Georgia, salaries and travel, fiscal years 2024 and 2025: title and total pay of every school district employee, July 2024 to June 2025, and the year before to see who worked the full year.
- City of New York, Citywide Payroll Data (Fiscal Year): titles, base salaries, regular pay, overtime and other pay of every city employee, fiscal year 2025 (July 2024 to June 2025).
- Suffolk County, County Salaries by Department 2024 and 2023: each county employee's most recent title, hire and end dates, regular earnings, overtime and total pay in 2024; the 2023 file shows who held the same title a year earlier.
- City of Buffalo, Open Payroll: every pay line of every city employee, with title, start date and kind of pay, fiscal year 2025 (July 2024 to June 2025), added up per person.
- Nassau County Comptroller, Nassau Open Payroll: title, full- or part-time status, regular pay, overtime, longevity, shift differential, termination pay and other pay of every county employee in 2025, and in 2024 to see who held the same title a year earlier.
- Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Payroll Information, fourth quarter 2025: title, hire dates, annual rate, base pay, overtime and other pay of every employee for the whole of 2025 (the fourth-quarter file is year to date).
- Metropolitan Transportation Authority, MTA Employee Payroll: Beginning 2025 (Open NY): title, start and separation dates, hourly rate, regular pay, overtime and other pay of every MTA Police employee for the whole of 2025 (the file is year to date, updated to December 31).
- Transparent Utah, Office of the Utah State Auditor: title, wages and benefits of every employee of every Utah city, town, county and local district, as each reports them for its fiscal year.
- Louisville Metro Government, Louisville Metro KY Employee Salary Data (Louisville Open Data): title, department, annual rate, base pay, overtime, incentive and other pay of every Louisville Metro employee in 2025, and in 2024 to see who was already employed.
- Broome County, Annual Employee Earnings (Open NY): title, full- or part-time status, regular, overtime and total earnings of every county employee in 2025, and in 2024 to see who held the same title a year earlier.
- Fulton County Government (GA), Payroll Public Dataset, Share Fulton (CC BY 4.0): title, pay range, base, overtime and total pay and hire date of every Fulton County employee in 2025, and in 2024 to see who was already employed.
- New York State Authorities Budget Office, Salary Information for Local Authorities (Open NY): title, annual salary, salary paid, overtime and total pay of every employee, as reported by each local authority for its fiscal year.