Is Your Mayor Overpaid? Check Out Your City Salaries

LOS ANGELES, CA — When it comes to California politicians living off the public dime, it’s the San Diegans who are getting the best bang for their buck, while that high cost of living that plagues San Francisco even extends to politics.

The state Controller's Office released its annual report on government salaries, which is designed to help residents hold their city and county governments accountable for employee spending.

According to government salary data recently released by the state Controller's Office, San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee took home $297,387 last year, the highest salary of any mayor in the state. He earns that much for leading a city with a population of 874,222 people. Compare that to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, the second highest-paid mayor in California in 2016. Garcetti, who helms a city with 4,041,707 people, earned $246,303.

Perhaps the best bargain among large-city politicians is in San Diego, a city of 1,406,318 people, where the mayor earned $101,663.

Dozens of smaller California cities don’t even pay their mayor a salary, and dozens more keep their wages at modest levels below $50,000 per year. For example, San Leandro pays its mayor $33,009; Berkeley pays $33,529; Temecula pays $27,701; Livermore pays $17,004; Redondo Beach pays $15,863; Newport Beach pays $15,659 and Poway pays $13,827.

To find out what your mayor and other city officials are paid, click here.

The survey didn’t just look at politico salaries. It also examined the wages earned by municipal employees throughout the state. The report might be enough to send you looking for government work. The average compensation for municipal employees in California in 2016 was $65,125 in wages, with an additional $19,258 worth of retirement and health benefits.

The Controller's Office data encompasses 686,418 positions that generated a total of more than $44 billion in wages in 2016 in 53 counties and 470 cities that submitted their salary information.

The cities with the highest average pay were Vernon, in Los Angeles County, $108,673; Cathedral City, in Riverside County, $102,802; and Hayward, in Alameda County, $101,668.

Among county governments, the average employee pay statewide was $64,779, with $25,180 in benefits. Santa Clara County paid the most in average wages, at $85,650, and San Diego County ranked 20th, at $56,293.

City News Service contributed to this report; Photo: Shutterstock