Where the numbers come from

Every figure on Public Paycheck comes from a public record published by a government agency. This page names those records, explains what each figure means and what it leaves out.

Where the California teacher salaries come from

School districts and county offices of education report their teacher salary schedules to the California Department of Education each year on Form J-90. The state publishes the answers as a database and a summary report, Selected Certificated Salaries and Related Statistics. We use the 2024-25 edition. It covers public school districts and county offices of education; charter schools and private schools aren't included.

Reporting is voluntary. For 2024-25, 828 districts and county offices responded: 83.05% of them, covering 95.76% of the state's average daily attendance outside charter schools, according to the state's report. Districts that didn't respond don't appear on the site.

District names, types and office cities come from the state's public schools and districts directory, matched by district code. Short names such as LAUSD appear only where the district uses them itself, on its own website or in its web address.

What does "average salary on the teacher schedule" mean?

Average salary on the teacher schedule
The total a district pays everyone on its schedule, divided by the number of full-time equivalents. County and state averages pool every full-time equivalent in the area, the same method the state uses. Our statewide average, $103,552, matches the state's published figure.
Lowest and highest salary
The first and the top amount on the district's schedule. In some districts the lowest amount is for teachers without a full credential; each district page says which column it comes from.
Full-time equivalents
Two half-time teachers count as one. The count covers everyone paid on the teacher schedule, which can include counselors, nurses and librarians.
Median district
The district in the middle when all districts are lined up by average salary: half pay a lower average, half a higher one.
Raise on last year
The change in the salary schedule from the year before, as each district reported it. The state's file shows a blank answer as 0%, so 0% can also mean the district didn't say.

What the salary figures leave out

Following the state's definitions, schedule salaries leave out pay for an extended school year, bonuses such as those for a master's or doctorate, and pay for extra duties such as coaching, drama or music. Where a district reported bonuses, health cover or work days, its page shows them separately, as reported.

Why some districts have no page of their own

  • We never publish names, and every figure covers at least five people. Districts with fewer than 5 full-time equivalents on their schedule aren't named, and on salary grids we hide the count for any cell with fewer than 5. Those people still count toward every total and average.
  • A district gets its own page from 20 full-time equivalents. Districts with 5 to 19 appear only as rows in the comparison tables.
  • Lists of the highest and lowest-paying districts include only districts with their own page, so a district with three teachers can't top a list.
  • All reporting districts, however small, count toward county and state averages and rankings.

Where the 911 dispatcher pay comes from

California's State Controller publishes the pay of every city, county and special district position each year, without names: Government Compensation in California. Each row is one position held during the year, with its official pay range, the wages actually paid (regular pay, overtime, lump sums and other pay), the pension formula and the employer's pension and health contributions. We use the 2025 files.

Which jobs count as 911 dispatchers

Employers name the job differently: "Public Safety Dispatcher", "Police Service Representative", "Emergency Call Taker", "Fire Telecommunicator". We sort every job title by hand-checked rules on the title and its department. We include dispatchers and call takers at police, sheriff and fire agencies and at regional 911 centers, along with their supervisors. We leave out managers, technicians, and dispatch work outside 911, such as transit, utility, public works and airport dispatch, and dispatchers for district attorneys or court marshals.

Why pay figures count only full-year dispatchers

The files list everyone who held a position at any point in the year, including people who started in December or left in March. Their pay would pull the figures down, so total pay, base pay, overtime and contributions use only people whose regular pay reached at least 90% of the bottom of their official range: roughly a full year's work. Headcounts still count everyone. Where an employer reported no pay range, or reported each person's own pay in place of a range (so the bottom and top match what that person was paid), we can't apply the rule: its people count in headcounts, but not in any pay figure, ranking or comparison.

Official range, average and median total pay

The official range is the employer's published pay scale for a title, as reported. Total pay is everything on the paycheck before tax: base pay plus overtime, lump sums and other pay. The headline figures are averages. We also show the median, the middle person's total pay, because a few people with a lot of overtime pull an average up: half earned more than the median, half less. Every figure covers at least 5 people, and employers with fewer than 5 people in the job have no page.

How we count social workers

Social worker pay comes from the same State Controller files as 911 dispatcher pay, and the same rules apply: headcounts count everyone, pay figures use only people who worked roughly the full year, and every figure covers at least 5 people.

Which jobs count as social workers

We count titles that name social work: "Social Worker", "Children's Social Worker", "Psychiatric Social Worker", "Medical Social Worker", "Social Services Practitioner", "Protective Services Worker", "Child Welfare Worker" and their supervisors and trainees. We leave out aides and assistants, eligibility staff, analysts, program specialists and managers. We also leave out mental and behavioral health clinicians: they're licensed therapists, and not all of them are social workers.

Children's, mental health, medical and general social workers

A title that names its field keeps it: a "Children's Social Worker" counts as children's, a "Psychiatric Social Worker" as mental health, a "Medical Social Worker" as medical. Plain titles such as "Social Worker III" take the field from their department: child and family services count as children's, mental and behavioral health as mental health, hospitals and clinics as medical. Social workers at public hospital districts count as medical. Everyone else counts as general, which covers adult and aging services and also social workers whose department doesn't name a field.

School social workers

Social workers employed by school districts, charter schools and county offices of education come from a separate State Controller file. School employers report to it voluntarily, and 2024 is the latest year they have reported, so these figures cover only the school employers that reported and are a year older than the county and city figures. They're shown in their own section and on their own pages, never mixed into the county and city averages. The same title rules apply: titles that name social work count, interns, aides, counselors, therapists and managers don't.

How we count water and wastewater operators

Water operator pay comes from the same State Controller files, with the same rules: headcounts count everyone, pay figures use only people who worked roughly the full year, and every figure covers at least 5 people.

Which jobs count as water operators

We count jobs that need a state operator certificate (for water treatment, water distribution or wastewater treatment) plus sewer maintenance crews, which have no state certificate. Titles that name the work count everywhere: "Water Treatment Plant Operator", "Wastewater Plant Operator", "Water Distribution Operator", "Collection System Operator". Plain titles such as "Operator II" or "Plant Operator" count only in a water or sewer department or district, so bus, equipment and power plant operators stay out. Crew and technician titles count only where we've checked the employer's job description and it requires a distribution certificate. We leave out water utility workers, general utility workers, canal and dam operators, mechanics, electricians, lab staff and managers. The California page lists who's left out and why, with the official sources.

Treatment, distribution, wastewater and sewer operators

A title that names its work keeps it: water treatment, water distribution, wastewater treatment or wastewater collection (sewers). "Water reclamation" and "water pollution control" count as wastewater treatment, because those plants clean sewage. Titles that cover a whole water system without saying treatment or distribution count as water system; titles that cover both water and wastewater count as water and wastewater. Plain titles take the work from their department or district: a plant operator at a sanitation district counts as wastewater treatment. Where neither says water or wastewater, the title counts as other.

How we count California police officers

Police officer pay comes from the same State Controller files, cities and special districts, with the same rules: headcounts count every position held during the year, pay figures use only people who worked roughly the full year, and every figure covers at least 5 people.

Which jobs count as police officers

We count sworn officers at city police departments, police protection districts, and BART, port, airport and park district police: Police Officer at every level, corporals, senior and master officers and police agents. Titles that say police count everywhere; a plain "Officer" or "Sergeant" counts only in a police department, so fire captains and fire lieutenants stay out. We leave out recruits, cadets and trainees in the academy (they aren't sworn yet), reserve, part-time and per diem officers, chiefs and commanders, and civilian police staff such as community service officers, dispatchers, records and parking staff. County sheriff's deputies are a job of their own and aren't on these pages yet. One officer's row at Ione showed a pay correction (total pay of $7,483 against regular pay of $77,829), so we set it aside.

Detectives, sergeants, lieutenants and captains

Detective is an assignment for officers in most departments; where it's a title of its own (Los Angeles, San Diego and others), it's a rank between officer and sergeant, so we count it as a rank. Ranks above officer are shown in their own pay by rank table on each page and on a page of their own per rank, never mixed into the officer figures, rankings or headcounts. That keeps "average police officer salary" to what officers earn.

How we count California firefighters

Firefighter pay comes from the same State Controller files, with the same rules. Counties count here, unlike for police: county fire departments such as Los Angeles, Kern and Ventura employ their firefighters directly. Cal Fire, the state's fire department, reports in a separate state file and isn't on these pages.

Which jobs count as firefighters

We count career firefighters at city and county fire departments, fire protection districts and fire authorities: Firefighter at every level, firefighter-paramedics and firefighter-EMTs, on 40- and 56-hour schedules. Titles that say fire or firefighter count everywhere; a plain "Captain" or "Engineer" counts only in a fire department, so sheriff's captains and civil engineers stay out. Santa Clara County's "Firefighter/Engineer" is its base rank (the next rank up is Fire Captain), so it counts as a firefighter there. We leave out volunteer, reserve, paid-call, seasonal and extra-help firefighters, recruits and trainees, hand crews, chiefs above battalion chief, and civilian fire staff such as inspectors, fire marshals, dispatchers, mechanics and lifeguards. Three titles that included a person's first name are left out so no name is published.

Some small fire districts list their paid-call volunteers simply as "Firefighter". A department gets a page only when at least 5 of its firefighters were paid at least a full year at California's minimum wage in regular pay. A range whose bottom is below a full year at the minimum wage can't show who worked the full year, so nobody on it counts as full-year; and where most of a department's ranges start at each person's own pay, we set its pay figures aside, as for other jobs.

Engineers, lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs

Ranks above firefighter are shown in their own pay by rank table on each page and on a page of their own per rank, never mixed into the firefighter figures, rankings or headcounts. Engineers include apparatus operators and firefighter specialists, as some departments name the rank.

The Los Angeles Fire Department's pay ranges

The City of Los Angeles reported no pay ranges for its fire titles to the State Controller, except for Firefighter I. Without a range we couldn't tell who worked the full year, so we use the City's own salary schedules from its agreements with its firefighters (Memorandum of Understanding No. 23) and its fire chief officers (No. 22): the schedules in effect from June 29, 2025, the same date as the Firefighter I range in the Controller's file. They're base salary, without paramedic, longevity or other premium pay.

How we count California registered nurses

Nurse pay comes from the same State Controller files, plus two more: the University of California's and the state departments'. Nurses work for every kind of public employer, so the pages cover all of them: University of California campuses, county and city health systems, health care districts, public health departments, state prisons, state hospitals and veterans homes, and county jails. Private hospitals and clinics don't report to the State Controller and aren't on these pages. State departments work across the state, so they're compared only with the state as a whole, never counted in a county figure. So is UC Davis: the file places the campus in Yolo County, but its medical center is in Sacramento. The other University of California campuses count in their own county.

Which jobs count as registered nurses

We count staff and clinical registered nurses at every level, charge and lead nurses, and public health, psychiatric, correctional and detention nurses. Per diem and relief nurses count in headcounts, and in pay figures only when they worked the full year. We leave out supervisors, nurse managers and directors (their titles mean different jobs at different employers), nursing assistants, nurse techs and student nurses, and nursing jobs away from patient care: educators, case managers, utilization reviewers, navigators, infection prevention and quality staff, and health plan nurses. Nurse anesthetists, midwives, clinical nurse specialists and school nurses are left out too. Each title was decided by hand.

Nurse practitioners and LVNs

Nurse practitioners and licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) are counted as groups of their own, with their own page each, never mixed into the registered nurse figures, rankings or headcounts.

Where nurses work

Each nurse is labeled by where the title or department says they work: hospital, public health, clinic, behavioral health, jail or juvenile hall, state prison, state hospital or veterans home. Where a city or county health agency's department doesn't say whether a nurse works in its hospital or its clinics (San Francisco's Department of Public Health runs both), the nurse counts under "health system". University of California campuses with an academic health center, as University of California Health lists them, count as "university health system".

The University of California's pay ranges

The University of California reports no pay ranges to the State Controller. Without a range we couldn't tell who worked the full year, so we use each campus's wage tables in its contract with the California Nurses Association (Appendix A): the tables effective January 2025, in force until the new contract of November 22, 2025. Yearly figures are the hourly rate times 2,088 hours, the tables' monthly rate times 12. The University's vocational nurses are outside that contract, so they count in headcounts but not in pay figures.

Employers whose ranges aren't pay scales

A range whose bottom is below a full year at California's minimum wage can't show who worked the full year, so nobody on it counts as full-year. One health care district reported a different one-figure "range" for nearly every nurse; where most of an employer's ranges are like that, we set its pay figures aside, as for other jobs. A nurse's starting salary is the bottom of the range for the employer's plain staff nurse title (such as Registered Nurse I or Clinical Nurse I), and only where most people in that title share one range.

How we count California correctional officers

Correctional officer pay comes from the same State Controller files, plus the state departments' file for the state's prisons: the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Correctional Health Care Services, which share its officer titles. We count officers in their own custody titles: CDCR's Correctional Officer in each of its pay ranges, and the counties' Correctional Officer, Correctional Deputy, Sheriff's Correctional Officer, Custody Deputy and Detentions Deputy, at every level, plus two city-run jails (Santa Ana and Taft). Deputy sheriffs whose title names the jail assignment ("Deputy Sheriff - Corrections", San Diego's "Deputy Sheriff - Detentions/Court Services") count as their county's correctional officers, and the county's page says so; San Diego's title covers court security too. A plain Deputy Sheriff title doesn't say where the deputy works, so those deputies aren't counted. Probation and juvenile corrections officers work for probation departments; custody assistants and specialists, city police jailers, academy cadets (CDCR's "Range 1"), extra-help and temporary officers and other prison staff are left out. Sergeants, lieutenants and captains are shown by rank, never in the officer figures. The state departments count for the whole state, never in a county figure.

CDCR's officer title comes in two pay ranges: Range J (from $66,120) for entry-level officers and Range K (from $87,840) for journey-level officers, as the state's human resources department describes them in its 2024 Correctional Officer Total Compensation Survey. CDCR's starting salary is the bottom of Range J.

How we count New York and Utah correctional officers

New York's correction officer pages cover New York City's Department of Correction, from the city's payroll for fiscal year 2025 with the same full-year rule as the city's other jobs, and the Nassau County (2025), Suffolk County (2024) and Broome County (2025) jails, with each county's own full-year rule. For Nassau that's full-time officers paid at least 90% of their own annual salary, without termination pay: the county's 2024 figures ran about a tenth higher than 2025 for many long-serving officers, so the test against the year before that its police pages use would have left most of them out. Officers count at every pay step; captains, and the counties' sergeants and lieutenants, are shown by rank. Suffolk names its ranks Correction Officer II, III and IV: by its class specifications, a Correction Officer II supervises officers on a shift and a Correction Officer III supervises a shift under a Correction Officer IV, so we show them as sergeants, lieutenants and captains. Suffolk's correction investigators, wardens and deputy wardens are left out. The state's prisons aren't in any payroll file we use.

Utah's pages cover the State of Utah, counted as one employer, and every county that reports Corrections Officer or Corrections Deputy titles in Transparent Utah, with the same full-year estimate as Utah's other jobs. Deputy sheriffs whose title names the jail assignment (Deputy Sheriff - Corrections in Utah, Weber and Cache counties) count too, as in California; Utah law's definition of a correctional officer covers sworn officers employed by a county (Utah Code 53-13-104). Davis County is left out because most of its wages in the file are zero.

How we count librarians in California and Utah

California's librarian pages use the State Controller's city, county and special district files, plus its files for the University of California, the California State University, community college districts and state departments. We count librarians at every level (Librarian I to V, Senior Librarian and specialist titles such as Children's or Reference Librarian), the University of California's assistant, associate and full librarians, California State University and community college librarians, prison librarians at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the State Library's librarians, and county and court law librarians. Each employer is labeled by where its librarians work: public library, university, community college, law library, prison or state hospital, or the State Library. Part-time, hourly, adjunct and temporary titles count in headcounts but never as a full year. Supervising and principal librarians, branch heads, managers and directors are left out, as are pages, aides, shelvers, students and substitutes. School librarians are left out for now: school employers report voluntarily, for an earlier year, and many school librarians are paid on the teacher schedule.

Library assistants, technicians, associates and clerks are counted as a group of their own, with their own page, never mixed into the librarian figures. The University of California reports its librarians' ranges as zero, so we use its librarian salary scales in force at the start of 2025: Table 26B for librarians in the union (from November 1, 2024) and Table 26A for the rest (from July 1, 2024), lowest to highest step for each rank. A librarian's starting salary is the bottom of the range for the employer's plain Librarian or Librarian I title. Community colleges have none here: several report one range for full-time and adjunct librarians alike, so its bottom isn't a starting salary.

Utah's pages cover city and county libraries, library districts, the public universities and colleges and the State of Utah (one employer), from Transparent Utah, with the same full-year estimate as Utah's other jobs. Outside the universities, assistant and associate librarians were paid like library assistants, so they count with library assistants; at the universities they're ranks of the librarian job. Library assistants have no pay figures in Utah: many work part time and the file has no hours. Where most of an employer's librarians were paid less than $32,000 in the year, which points to part-time work (Provo, for example), the employer has no pay figures either.

How we count paramedics and EMTs

The paramedic and EMT pages cover single-role paramedics and EMTs: the ambulance crews of city and county fire departments, ambulance and health care districts and counties. In California we count Paramedic, Single Role Paramedic, Emergency Medical Technician, EMT and Ambulance Operator titles from the State Controller's files, each labeled paramedic or EMT from its title. Part-time, hourly and per diem titles count in headcounts but never as a full year. Supervisors, coordinators, instructors, lifeguards, paid-call and reserve EMTs, hospital emergency room technicians and the University of California's EMT titles are left out. A starting salary is the bottom of the range for the employer's lowest full-time EMT or paramedic title.

Firefighters whose title names paramedic duties (Firefighter/Paramedic, Fire Paramedic and the like) are firefighters, counted on the firefighter pages. The paramedic pages show their pay as a group of its own, never in the paramedic and EMT figures, so readers can see both jobs side by side. Fire engineers and captains with paramedic duties are fire ranks and aren't in that group.

New York's page covers the Fire Department's Emergency Medical Service (EMTs and paramedics; supervisors shown on their own), from the city's payroll for fiscal year 2025, and the Nassau County Police Department's police medics (2025), who provide advanced life support on the county's ambulances (New York State Senate, Bill S3100, sponsor memo); their title doesn't say paramedic or EMT, so they're shown on their own. Utah's page covers cities, counties, fire and ambulance districts and the State of Utah, from Transparent Utah. Many Utah ambulance services run on part-time and on-call staff: where most of an employer's paramedics and EMTs were paid less than $32,000 in the year, it has no pay figures, because the file has no hours to tell who worked the full year.

How we pick a starting salary

A starting salary is the bottom of the official range for an employer's entry-level title: a trainee, a level I or a title with one level, as the employer reported it. Part-time, extra help, per diem and temporary titles don't count, and neither does a range below a full year at California's 2025 minimum wage of $16.50 an hour (California Department of Industrial Relations), because that's an hourly, monthly or part-time figure. Where an employer reports a different range for nearly every person in a title, there's no one range to start from, so the employer has no starting salary. Los Angeles's starting salary for police officers comes from the Los Angeles Police Department, not the city's airport or port police.

How we count New York City's public jobs

New York City publishes the pay of every city employee each fiscal year (July to June) on its open data portal: Citywide Payroll Data. Each row is one person in one title at one agency, with their base salary, regular pay, overtime and other pay. We drop the names when we download the file. Official minimum and maximum pay per title come from the city's Civil Service Titles list, which shows the current ranges (2026), so they can be a little higher than the rates paid in fiscal year 2025. School Social Workers aren't on that list: they're paid from the Department of Education's School Psychologist and Social Worker schedule. The department's website still shows the May 2021 version, so we use the 2022-27 schedule as the teachers' union publishes it (United Federation of Teachers). We checked it against the payroll: 99% of active School Social Workers have a base salary that is exactly one of its steps.

Which titles count, and who worked the full year

911 dispatchers: Police Communications Technicians at the Police Department and Fire Alarm Dispatchers at the Fire Department, with their supervisors. Social workers: Child Protective Specialists and their supervisors, Caseworkers, Social Workers and School Social Workers. Water operators: Sewage Treatment Workers and Senior Sewage Treatment Workers, and Water Treatment Plant Operators. Pay figures use only people still employed at the end of June who worked at least 90% of a full year's regular hours at their title's standard week; for school staff, whose hours aren't recorded, regular pay of at least 90% of their own annual salary. Hours come first because a raise during the year leaves regular pay below the salary on the last day.

How we count 911 dispatchers, social workers and water operators in the rest of New York

Outside New York City there is no statewide file of local government pay with job titles, so we use the employers that publish their own: Suffolk County (County Salaries by Department, 2024), Broome County (Annual Employee Earnings, 2025), the City of Buffalo (Open Payroll, fiscal year 2025) and the water and sewer authorities, which report every employee's pay to the state Authorities Budget Office (Salary Information for Local Authorities). Each employer's page uses the newest year it has published, so the state pages combine 2023, 2024 and 2025 figures and say so. We drop names when we download the files. None of these files has official pay ranges, so their pages show what people earned, by title, without ranges.

Who worked the full year, without hours

These files don't record hours, so each gets the closest test its records allow. Suffolk and Broome: full-time staff who held the same title the year before and whose regular pay reached at least 90% of the previous year's. Buffalo: full-time staff who started before the fiscal year, were paid their salary on at least 90% of the year's paydays and were still paid at the end. The authorities: full-time staff whose salary paid reached at least 90% of their own annual salary. One authority, the Water Authority of Western Nassau County, reported each person's total pay as their annual salary, so its page shows headcounts only. The Buffalo Water Board's operators are paid by the City of Buffalo and are counted from the city's payroll.

Which titles count outside the city

The same rules as everywhere else, checked against each employer's job descriptions where a title didn't make the job clear. 911 dispatchers include call takers who answer 911 calls (Suffolk's Emergency Complaint Operators, and Nassau County's Police Communications Operators, from Nassau Open Payroll 2025 with the same full-year test as its police) and leave out public works and transit dispatchers. Social workers are caseworkers, casework supervisors and social workers; eligibility examiners and casework assistants are left out. Water operators are treatment plant operators and trainees, plus sewer crews; plant helpers, who need no certificate, are left out, and so are titles whose job description we couldn't find.

School social workers in New York

School social workers in New York's school districts and BOCES come from the same State Education Department file as the New York teacher pages: the staff it counts as social workers, with their annual salary, years of experience and degrees. These are salaries without overtime or other pay, so they're shown in their own section and never mixed with the total pay of the county and city social workers. A district or BOCES gets a page from 5 school social workers. The file gives the median and the salary spread for full-time staff without saying how many work full time, so we show them only where everyone does. New York City's school social workers also appear on the city's page, from the city payroll.

Teachers in the rest of New York

For every other New York school district and BOCES (the state's regional service agencies), the figures come from the State Education Department's Personnel Master File: classroom teachers assigned to at least one course, their average and median salary, years of experience and degrees, and median salary by degree and years of experience. These are actual salaries, not salary schedules. Charter schools set their own pay and aren't included, and private schools aren't in the state's file. Rankings compare school districts only, and a district gets its own page from 20 classroom teachers. District names are written out from the state's abbreviations, with a hand-checked list for the ones it shortens.

New York City teachers

New York City's public schools pay every teacher from one citywide salary schedule, which the Department of Education publishes with one table for each raise date. Actual pay comes from the city payroll: teachers in the titles Teacher and Teacher Special Education at the Department of Education in fiscal year 2025, which is the 2024-25 school year. District figures come from the State Education Department's Personnel Master File: classroom teachers assigned to at least one course, their average and median salary, years of experience and degrees. Because the schedule is the same everywhere, a district's average shows how experienced its teachers are, not a different pay rate. Charter schools set their own pay and aren't included.

Where the Kentucky teacher salary schedules come from

Kentucky's teacher pages use three tables the Kentucky Department of Education compiles from each district's staff report for 2025-26: every district's certified salary schedule, its average classroom teacher salary and its teachers in full-time equivalents. The schedule shows the annual salary by rank and years of experience, as the district reported it to the state. A district's own published schedule can differ, for example when it covers a different number of work days.

Kentucky law places teachers in ranks by education: Rank III with a bachelor's degree, Rank II with a master's degree (or National Board certification), and Rank I with Rank II plus a second master's, National Board certification or 30 more graduate hours (KRS 161.1211). The pages show these three ranks. Ranks IV and V, for teachers on emergency certificates without a bachelor's degree, are left out. Some districts also report a second salary lane within a rank, such as 15 graduate hours past a degree or a doctorate; the state's file doesn't say which, so those lanes aren't shown.

The average classroom teacher salary includes pay for contracted extra days and extra duties. The Kentucky figure is the state's own average of the district averages, so each district counts once whatever its size. The raise on last year is the middle change across a district's Rank III, II and I salaries from the 2024-25 schedule. A district gets its own page from 20 teachers.

How we count Louisville's public jobs

Kentucky has no statewide file of city and county pay, so Kentucky's police, firefighter, correctional officer, paramedic and EMT, 911 dispatcher and librarian pages cover one employer: Louisville Metro Government, the merged government of Louisville and Jefferson County, which publishes its whole payroll as open data. For 2025 it lists each person's title, department, annual rate, base pay, overtime and other pay. The file has no hours or hire dates, so a person counts as working the full year when they were already on the payroll in 2024 and their base pay in 2025 reached at least 90% of their own annual rate. Firefighters on the 56-hour week are paid part of every regular week as overtime, so for them base pay and overtime together must reach 90%.

We decided each title by hand: police officers at the Louisville Metro Police Department (sergeants and lieutenants by rank), firefighters at Louisville Fire (apparatus operators counted as engineers, company commanders as captains, and battalion chiefs by rank), corrections officers at the jail (sergeants, lieutenants and captains by rank), MetroSafe's 911 telecommunicators and fire dispatchers, Louisville Metro EMS's EMTs and paramedics, and the Louisville Free Public Library's librarians (library assistants as a group of their own). Recruits, command staff, part-time titles and civilian staff are left out. The police officer and sergeant ranges come from the police contract's scale in force from July 2025; Louisville Metro's other titles have no current published range.

How we count Georgia's teachers and other public jobs

Georgia's figures come from Open Georgia, the Department of Audits and Accounts' yearly file of every employee of the state's agencies, the University System and the local school districts, for the fiscal year from July 2024 to June 2025. It lists each person's title and everything they were paid in the year, so supplements for coaching and extra duties, and any overtime, are inside one figure. It has no hours, start dates, degrees, experience or pay ranges, and the department says it compiles the file without auditing or reviewing it. Names are dropped as soon as the file is downloaded.

Because the file has no hours, a person counts as working the full year when the same employer also paid them in the year before, they were paid at least 90% as much, and at least a full year at the federal minimum wage. Two people with the same name at one employer can't be told apart, so neither counts in pay figures. Teacher pages show the median of those full-year teachers, district by district; teachers are the classroom teacher titles (grade levels, special education, ESOL, gifted, career and technical), without substitutes, aides, adult education or Georgia's Pre-K lottery teachers. School librarians are the Librarian/Media Specialist title, school social workers the school social worker titles. Correctional officers at the Department of Corrections count in both of its officer title families; sergeants and lieutenants are shown by rank.

Open Georgia has no cities or counties, so the 911 dispatcher, county jail and public library figures come from Fulton County's payroll for 2025 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, credit: Fulton County Government). It lists each person's title, pay range, base pay, overtime and hire date. There a person counts as working the full year when they were hired before 2025, were on the payroll in 2024 too, were still employed at the end of 2025 and their base pay reached at least 90% of the bottom of their range. The five largest metro Atlanta districts' teacher salary schedules for 2026-27 come from each district's own document, cited on its page.

How we count New York firefighters

New York's firefighter pages cover the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), from the city's payroll for fiscal year 2025 with the same full-year rule as the city's other jobs, and the Buffalo Fire Department, from the city's Open Payroll for fiscal year 2025. Buffalo's file lists some salary payments on dates off the regular biweekly schedule, so its full-year test counts only the regular paydays: firefighters who started before July 2024, were paid their salary on at least 90% of those paydays and were still paid on the last one. Firefighters count at every pay step; lieutenants, captains and battalion chiefs are shown by rank, never in the firefighter figures. Neither department lists an engineer rank. Buffalo's "207-a only" pay titles and the firefighters it lists as injured on duty for more than 90 days are left out: they're paid but not working as firefighters. The FDNY's EMTs and paramedics, fire marshals, inspectors and chiefs above battalion chief are left out too.

How we count New York police officers

New York's police pages cover six departments that publish their own payroll files: the New York City Police Department (fiscal year 2025), the Nassau County Police Department (Nassau Open Payroll, 2025), the Suffolk County Police Department (2024), the Buffalo Police Department (fiscal year 2025), the Port Authority Police (Port Authority payroll information, 2025) and the MTA Police (MTA Employee Payroll, 2025). Nassau's file has no hours or hire dates, so its full-year test is Suffolk's: the same title the year before, at least 90% of that year's regular pay, and no termination pay. The Port Authority's file has hire dates and each person's annual rate: full-time officers who started before 2025 and were paid at least 90% of their rate. The Port Authority works in New York and New Jersey and its payroll doesn't say where each officer works, so its figures cover both states and aren't counted in any county. The MTA Police file has start and separation dates and each person's hourly rate: officers who started before 2025, were still employed at the end of it and were paid at least 90% of a full year (2,080 hours) at their rate. The MTA Police also works in Connecticut, on Metro-North's lines, and its payroll doesn't say where each officer works, so it too is kept out of every county figure. It doesn't publish its officers' pay schedule where we could find it, so its page shows each officer's rate at the end of 2025 by the year they were hired, and its starting salary is the rate every officer hired in 2025 was on. Officers are Police Officers at the six departments (all three of the MTA Police's pay tiers by hire date), plus New York City's Environmental Police Officers, the sworn police of the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Port Authority officers who also crew its airport rescue and firefighting units. Westchester County, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany and the State Police don't publish pay files with job titles that we could find. Cadets, recruits, civilian staff, and deputy inspectors and higher command staff are left out.

Police ranks at the New York departments

As in California, detectives, sergeants, lieutenants and captains are shown by rank, never in the officer figures. The city payroll lists first- and second-grade detectives as titles of their own; it has no title for third-grade detectives, so any it pays as Police Officers count as officers. NYPD sergeants and lieutenants with a designated assignment (detective squad supervisors and commanders, special assignments) count in their rank, and so do the detective sergeants, lieutenants and captains at Suffolk, Nassau, the Port Authority and the MTA Police. Buffalo has no plain sergeant title, so its detective sergeants are its sergeants. New York City's ranges come from the city's current title list; where a rank has several titles, its range runs from the lowest bottom to the highest top. The other departments' files have no ranges.

The NYPD pay scale

NYPD Police Officers are paid on six steps by years of service, set in the city's 2017-2025 agreement with the Police Benevolent Association: the schedule from August 2023, raised 4% in August 2024. The city doesn't post the agreement itself where we could find it, so we use the copy Ballotpedia publishes (2017-2025 Memorandum of Understanding) and checked it against the city payroll: every active Police Officer on June 30, 2025 had a base salary exactly on one of the six steps.

How we count Utah's police officers, water operators, 911 dispatchers and social workers

Utah's figures come from Transparent Utah, run by the Office of the Utah State Auditor: every city, town, county and local district reports each employee's title, wages and benefits for its fiscal year. We search it by job title across every employer, and drop names when we download it. Utah's wage figure includes overtime, so Utah pages show total pay only. The file has no official pay ranges, hours or departments.

Which jobs count follows the same lines as in California, decided title by title. Water operators: jobs that need a state operator certificate or train toward one, plus sewer crews; because the file has no departments, a plain title such as "Plant Operator" counts only at a district whose name says water or sewer. 911 dispatchers: dispatchers and public safety telecommunicators at cities, counties and the regional 911 centers, without combined jail or office jobs. Social workers: social worker and licensed clinical social worker titles, plus caseworkers. The State of Utah's caseworkers count as one employer, because the file doesn't say which state agency each works for; otherwise state agencies aren't counted. School social workers have their own section, as in the other states. Universities, nonprofits and charter schools aren't counted. A city's or town's county comes from the Census Bureau's list of Utah places; a district's from its headquarters.

Police officers: sworn officers at city and town police departments and at police agencies that serve several towns, such as the Unified Police Department, with the same rank rule as in California: detectives, sergeants, lieutenants and captains are shown by rank, never in the officer figures. A plain "Officer" or "Sergeant" counts at a police department. A plain "Lieutenant" or "Captain" can be a fire rank too, and the file has no departments, so it counts only at a city where the same people also held police titles between 2023 and 2026 and none held a fire title. County sheriff's deputies, the Utah Highway Patrol, and university and school district police aren't counted, and neither are reserve, part-time and special events officers or officers in training. Lone Peak Public Safety District reports its whole police department under one title, so it's left out. Where most people at an employer have no wages for a year (North Park Police Agency in 2025 and 2026, for example), that year is left out.

Each employer shows its newest full year: fiscal 2026 where it has reported it, unless the people paid in both years were paid less than 90% as much in 2026, which points to part of a year. Then we show 2025, as we do for counties, whose year is the calendar year. Without hours, we count someone as full-year when they worked for the same employer the year before, were paid at least 90% as much, earned at least 90% of that pay in the job's titles, and were paid at least a full year at Utah's minimum wage of $7.25 an hour (Utah Code 34-40-103), which is $15,080. Each Utah page has a section on how reliable its figures are.

Why do some employers show no average pay?

Where an employer has a page but no average, the tables and the page say which of three reasons applies:

  • Fewer than 5. Fewer than 5 people in the job worked the full year there. Every figure on the site covers at least 5 people, so none describes one person.
  • Not reported. The source left the figure blank, or the employer reported no pay range to tell who worked the full year.
  • Left out. The source has a figure, but our rules set it aside: for example, an employer that reported each person's own pay as their pay range, so everyone would pass the full-year test. The employer's page says why.

Other public records we use

Each page lists the sources behind its own figures at the bottom.

How often the teacher salary figures are updated

Once a year, when the state publishes the next school year's salary data. The site currently shows 2024-25.

Can you reuse Public Paycheck's salary figures?

Yes. Our figures and tables are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: you can copy, share and build on them, including commercially, as long as you credit Public Paycheck and link to the page you used. For example: "Source: Public Paycheck, from official payroll records." The underlying records belong to the agencies named in each page's sources.

Found a mistake in the salary data?

Send us a message with the page and the figure. If what we show differs from the state's file, we'll fix it.