MBTA employee clocks 2,600 OT hours
PHOTO/SAM BONACCI
Boston-bound commuters wait to board a train at Union Station in Worcester on a recent afternoon.
The highest-paid MBTA employee has been paid about $315,000 so far in 2015, working 4,455 hours, MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve told the T's Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday.
That worker, who is a maintenance of way employee, receives a base salary of $85,000 and worked about 2,600 hours of overtime, according to the T. The employee also received $59,000 in back pay this year.
Lisa Calise, a member of the control board, noted the unnamed worker was on the clock for an "incredible number of hours" totaling the time worked for about two full-time employees.
Calise suggested an audit be undertaken on the situation, asking, "Is this case an anomaly?"
Shortsleeve's presentation occurred amid discussions of fare increases and cuts to The Ride and early-morning weekend service with a $242 million deficit projected for fiscal 2017.
MBTA employees received over $100,000 in gross pay this year at a greater rate than executive branch employees, according to Shortsleeve's presentation. About 24 percent of the 6,482 T employees have grossed over $100,000 compared to 7.7 percent of the 44,141 executive branch employees.
Some retroactive pay raises went into effect this year at the T, according to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo.
The average $35.58 hourly wage for MBTA rail employees exceeds the average for the top five American transit agencies and is 30 percent above the national average, according to Shortsleeve's presentation.
For MBTA bus operators, who make an average of $34.99 per hour, the disparity is even greater. T bus drivers make about 50 percent more than the national average and significantly more than the top five U.S. transit agencies average.
Shortsleeve's presentation cited an analysis of John A. Dash & Associates.
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