The Nightmare Ahead: 19 US Cities Have More Public Workers per Resident than Detroit -
Detroit declared bankruptcy due in no small part to $3 billion in unfunded public employee pensions as a result of a massive city workforce that kept growing even as the city’s population shriveled, but a Washington Examiner analysis found that 19 major American cities have even bigger ratios of such workers to residents. Here's the report from WE showing the number of residents per municipal employee.
Detroit declared bankruptcy due in no small part to $3 billion in unfunded public employee pensions as a result of a massive city workforce that kept growing even as the city’s population shriveled, but a Washington Examiner analysis found that 19 major American cities have even bigger ratios of such workers to residents. Here's the report from WE showing the number of residents per municipal employee.
WASHINGTON DC
| Residents per employee | 25 |
| Population: | 601,723 |
| Employees: | 23,631 |
| Annual payroll: | $1,738,914,588 |
| Average salary: | $73,586 |
| What's not included? | |
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SAN FRANCISCO
| Residents per employee | 28 |
| Population: | 805,235 |
| Employees: | 28,660 |
| Annual payroll: | $2,564,000,376 |
| Average salary: | $89,462 |
| What's not included? | |
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BATON ROUGE-EAST BATON ROUGE
| Residents per employee | 30 |
| Population: | 229,493 |
| Employees: | 7,566 |
| Annual payroll: | $336,309,768 |
| Average salary: | $44,450 |
| What's not included? | |
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NEW YORK
| Residents per employee | 32 |
| Population: | 8,175,133 |
| Employees: | 252,701 |
| Annual payroll: | $18,645,049,116 |
| Average salary: | $73,783 |
| What's not included? | |
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RICHMOND
| Residents per employee | 39 |
| Population: | 204,214 |
| Employees: | 5,183 |
| Annual payroll: | $245,372,376 |
| Average salary: | $47,341 |
| What's not included? | |
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BALTIMORE
| Residents per employee | 43 |
| Population: | 620,961 |
| Employees: | 14,438 |
| Annual payroll: | $705,692,760 |
| Average salary: | $48,877 |
| What's not included? | |
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NORFOLK
| Residents per employee | 44 |
| Population: | 242,803 |
| Employees: | 5,512 |
| Annual payroll: | $252,770,712 |
| Average salary: | $45,858 |
| What's not included? | |
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BIRMINGHAM
| Residents per employee | 44 |
| Population: | 212,237 |
| Employees: | 4,749 |
| Annual payroll: | $230,290,992 |
| Average salary: | $48,492 |
| What's not included? | |
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DENVER
| Residents per employee | 49 |
| Population: | 600,158 |
| Employees: | 12,233 |
| Annual payroll: | $802,864,752 |
| Average salary: | $65,631 |
| What's not included? | |
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CLEVELAND
| Residents per employee | 50 |
| Population: | 396,815 |
| Employees: | 7,791 |
| Annual payroll: | $425,029,356 |
| Average salary: | $54,553 |
| What's not included? | |
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ST LOUIS
| Residents per employee | 50 |
| Population: | 319,294 |
| Employees: | 6,335 |
| Annual payroll: | $300,266,820 |
| Average salary: | $47,398 |
| What's not included? | |
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PHILADELPHIA
| Residents per employee | 51 |
| Population: | 1,526,006 |
| Employees: | 29,607 |
| Annual payroll: | $1,727,952,204 |
| Average salary: | $58,362 |
| What's not included? | |
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ATLANTA
| Residents per employee | 51 |
| Population: | 420,003 |
| Employees: | 8,091 |
| Annual payroll: | $371,572,752 |
| Average salary: | $45,924 |
| What's not included? | |
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NEW ORLEANS
| Residents per employee | 52 |
| Population: | 343,829 |
| Employees: | 6,593 |
| Annual payroll: | $308,493,468 |
| Average salary: | $46,791 |
| What's not included? | |
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CINCINNATI
| Residents per employee | 52 |
| Population: | 296,943 |
| Employees: | 5,644 |
| Annual payroll: | $316,340,436 |
| Average salary: | $56,048 |
| What's not included? | |
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SEATTLE
| Residents per employee | 56 |
| Population: | 608,660 |
| Employees: | 10,702 |
| Annual payroll: | $839,048,052 |
| Average salary: | $78,401 |
| What's not included? | |
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NASHVILLE-DAVIDSON COUNTY
| Residents per employee | 58 |
| Population: | 601,222 |
| Employees: | 10,362 |
| Annual payroll: | $536,638,152 |
| Average salary: | $51,789 |
| What's not included? | |
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CHESAPEAKE
| Residents per employee | 58 |
| Population: | 222,209 |
| Employees: | 3,819 |
| Annual payroll: | $172,783,464 |
| Average salary: | $45,243 |
| What's not included? | |
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COLORADO SPRINGS
| Residents per employee | 60 |
| Population: | 416,427 |
| Employees: | 6,852 |
| Annual payroll: | $438,830,400 |
| Average salary: | $64,044 |
| What's not included? | |
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DETROIT
| Residents per employee | 61 |
| Population: | 713,777 |
| Employees: | 11,645 |
| Annual payroll: | $651,437,244 |
| Average salary: | $55,941 |
| What's not included? | |
| Back to map There's data on even more cities here. | |
