mbtasalary 1.0.0

Examining MBTA salaries

MBTA Salary Analysis

Year 2015 data thanks to Matthew Rocheleau, the Boston Globe staff reporter on the 22 Dec 2015 MBTA overtime article.

1. extract text tables from PDF using Poppler pdftotext
2. load with Pandas
3. 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.

Examples

We currently have 2013-2015 salary data. Other trend analyses may find it useful to request prior years data.

2015 MBTA Salary

MBTAsalary EMP-2015-Gross-Bpay-Ovt.xlsx 2015

yields 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

2014 MBTA Salary

MBTAsalary Wages2014.txt 2014

yields 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

MBTA 2013 Salary

MBTAsalary "FOIA 14-11 final.txt" 2013

yields 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

Obtaining Salary Data

You will need to download and convert the salary data first. Each year's format is a little different.

2015 Salary Data

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.

2014 Salary Data

1. Download 2014 MBTA salary data
2. Extract text from PDF:

   pdftotext -layout Wages2014.pdf
   

2013 Salary Data

1. Download 2013 MBTA salary data
2. Extract text from PDF:

   pdftotext -layout "FOIA 14-11 final.pdf"
   

3. 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.