Worcester city employee earnings reveal top earners, gender and race pay gaps

Photo | Grant Welker Worcester City Hall

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By Katherine Hamilton

The City of Worcester on Monday released its employee earnings for 2021, which showed full-time female employees make 29% less on average than their male counterparts, while employees of color make 10-18% less than white employees.

The majority of the top earners are from the Worcester Police Department, and the top earner for gross pay in 2021 was police Lt. John Towns, who earned a total of $302,858 last year.

City Manager Edward Augustus and Superintendent Maureen Binienda were the only two non-police individuals among the top 50 earners in 2021. Augustus was the second on the list with a gross pay of $283,594, about $3,800 more than he made in 2020. Binienda made $240,743 in 2021, ranking her at 17th on the list and making her the highest-paid female employee of the city.

Of the top 100 earners last year, who all made more than $177,000, four were female and five were nonwhite. The average gross pay for full-time male employees was $82,588, and the average for female employees was $58,742, marking a difference of about $23,850.

This means the average pay for a full-time female employee is 29% less than a full-time male employee.

White full-time employees, on average, earned more than any other race. The average annual gross pay for a white employees was $70,123, about $8,400 higher than the salary for Black employees, who earned an average of $61,719 per year. Hispanic employees had the lowest average pay at $57,425. Asian employees made an average of $63,201.

This means for the racial pay gap among full-time city employees, compared to white employees:

Hispanic employees earned 18% less,
Black employees earned 12% less,
Asian employees earned 10% less.

Kathleen Johnson, the former assistant city manager who retired in October, was the third-highest paid non-police employee on the list, ranking at No. 56 on the list. She made $201,381.

Police Chief Steven Sargent made $245,715 in 2021, which is almost $6,600 higher than in 2020. Despite the raise, Sargent fell from second on the list in 2020 to 12th in 2021.

Salaries for other members of the City cabinet are as follows:

City Solicitor Michael Traynor made $183,884.
Fire Chief Martin Dyer made $168,320.
Chief Financial Officer Timothy McGourthy made $166,261.
Assistant City Manager Nicole Valentine made $139,894.
Chief Information Officer Eileen Cazaropoul made $137,326.
Chief Development Officer Peter Dunn made $119,789.
Assistant City Manager Eric Batista, who has been selected as acting city manager effective with Augustus' resignation at the end of May, made $119,337.
Former Chief Diversity Officer Stephanie Williams, who resigned in March, made $104,748.