Obstructed views: Employee compensation hidden from view by Illinois counties

Our local government transparency partners often report that employee compensation is almost universally the most in-demand transparency suggestion from our 10-Point Transparency Checklist. Not only is public worker compensation regularly the No. 1 budget area for most local governments, but it is also an issue that virtually everyone can understand. For example, Cook County’s budget is...

Our local government transparency partners often report that employee compensation is almost universally the most in-demand transparency suggestion from our 10-Point Transparency Checklist.

Not only is public worker compensation regularly the No. 1 budget area for most local governments, but it is also an issue that virtually everyone can understand.

For example, Cook County’s budget is estimated to be near $3 billion next year, but it’s very difficult for the average citizen to put that in context and decide if that spending was too high, too low or just right. However, when it was revealed that the Cook County Recorder of Deeds, Karen Yarbrough, hired her niece for a job that comes with a $114,000 annual salary, people took notice and started asking tough questions. It was also revealed that she had hired a campaign donor to her staff.

Cook County publishes a list of projected salaries (not actual wages) online, which shows that there are 1,958 county employees that have a salary of more than $100,000.

The compensation category is perhaps the most valuable accountability tool for citizens in our 10-Point Transparency Checklist. Posting worker compensation information online allows the public to fight corruption and hold government accountable when government worker pay becomes too costly.

Therefore, it’s quite shocking that in our recent study, “Obstructed views: Illinois’ 102 county online transparency audit,” that compensation was the lowest-scoring category. With an average score of only 0.5 out of a possible 10 points, 99 counties, including Cook, had failing grades in the compensation category. It should be relatively easy to score a perfect grade in this category, as governments only need to list the salary and benefits package of all of its employees once a year for each of the last five years.

Though the majority failed this category, some counties had success in the compensation transparency category. Rock Island County in western Illinois had four years of employee compensation information posted online, and Will and Kane counties posted perfect scores.

But all other counties have a long way to go. Lack of government worker compensation transparency protects politicians and bureaucrats who engage in patronage hiring practices. It also protects politicians from being held accountable by taxpayers when elected officials decide to give excessive compensation to government workers.

These employees and their union representation often fight compensation transparency measures, but they should have nothing to hide. If they really believe they are underpaid, as they often claim, they would have an interest in letting the public know their true compensation to build support for future compensation increases and the tax increases to pay for them.

Below you can view how your county performed in this category. If you are dissatisfied with your county’s transparency results, the only way to get improvement is by demanding more transparency from your local governments.