A Herald analysis into Newton’s payroll for the 2023 calendar year revealed that 21 of the 89 custodians employed in the district made at least $20,000 in overtime pay, a statistic one financial watchdog called “appalling.”

The review also found that 13 custodians used the extra pay to skyrocket their salaries to over $100,000 — with the highest raking in $75,347.12 to boost their $88,383.58 in regular earnings to $166,780.86.

There are 22 school buildings in the district — 15 elementary, four middle and two high schools and an integrated preschool program.

A fire captain and police lieutenant topped the list of overtime earners in the city of roughly 84,500 people, as they took in $81,446.5 and $77,147.26, respectively, the payroll shows.

This is the latest example that highlights the “rampant unchecked spending in local services,” causing property taxes to soar in Greater Boston, said Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

“I have never heard of that before. It’s actually quite appalling,” Craney said of the staggering custodian overtime pay in Newton while speaking to the Herald on Friday. “It’s pretty obvious the people that are entrusted by the taxpayers to have oversight in that school district (don’t), and as a result, employees are gaming the system.”

Officials provided the Herald a copy of the payroll on the heels of the Newton Teachers Association and School Committee reaching a contract agreement after a 2-week strike, one of the longest actions in recent history across Massachusetts public schools.

The strike between Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 caused the union to rack up $625,000 in fines. Meanwhile the district, which enrolls nearly 12,000 students, incurred more than $1 million in costs related to compensatory services and court fees.

Students and families couldn’t take the traditional February break, and parents have filed lawsuits against the union.

Custodians are in a separate union from the teachers, one that has had to deal with their respective disputes with the School Committee over the years.

Custodial overtime is driven by three major factors, the district’s director of communications, Julie McDonough, told the Herald. Those include coverage for custodians who are on sick leave or paid time off; school programs and events that occur after school hours or on the weekends; and the rental of school buildings to outside organizations.

“We believe our figures to be accurate as overtime is submitted by custodial staff, reviewed by the facilities office, and then submitted to payroll, who does a final review,” McDonough said in an email.

The district pays overtime for work completed over 8 hours per day, or 40 hours per week, at a rate of 1.5 times the regular hourly rate Monday to Saturday, McDonough said. It pays twice the regular hourly rate for Sundays and holidays, she added.

“Custodial overtime pay is factored into the school budget each year,” she explained. “This pay is largely offset by our Use of School Buildings program, which generates revenue through the rental of our facilities to outside organizations. Current staffing allows for flexibility as events, rentals, and programming fluctuate year to year and limits longer term liabilities.”

The overtime figures have been relatively consistent over the past decade, McDonough said.

A Herald review of the 2022 payroll revealed that three custodians cracked the city’s top 10 highest overtime earners. The custodian with the second largest pool amongst the cleaning crew made $71,579.27 by clocking extra hours, but that number dropped to $51,858.87 in 2023.

In 2015, the district awarded a bid to New York-based business management consulting firm Core Management Services to conduct an independent evaluation of its custodial program.

The review, involving custodial quality inspections at 18 schools, found that the facilities were “not currently being cleaned to minimum acceptable quality standards for K-12 districts.” A recommendation included outsourcing services that could have led to savings “as high as $1,078,000 per year,” according to a report outlining the findings.

The School Committee turned the recommendation into a proposal which received fierce backlash from the Newton Custodians’ Association. The union filed more than 25 charges of unfair treatment against the committee, with the state Department of Labor Relations becoming involved as a third party, Newton North High School’s student newspaper, The Newtonite, reported in April 2017.

“It never (came to fruition), and it is not being considered now,” McDonough told the Herald.

“If I was a property taxpayer in Newton, I would be demanding some resignations,” Craney said. “The person in charge of oversight does not care. They’ve let this happen to the point where it’s being completely abused.”

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Data from the city of Boston’s annual payroll report listed 66 employees in the mayor’s office in 2023, a decrease from 75 in 2022. The highest number of department employees reported in the analysis was 80 in 2021.

The 18 department employees earning at least $100,000 in total gross pay for the year increased from the 15 in 2022. The lowest number of such employees was 10 in 2021. Last year also saw the highest average gross employee pay, $83,030.31, over the years examined. The average gross pay for the 80 employees in 2021 was slightly less than $49,000.

According to the 2023 records, the bottom line figure for the Mayor’s office was $5.48 million.

Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance questioned how vital the increased $100,000 annual earners are to serve the city of Boston.

“How many six-figure salaried ‘advisors,’ ‘deputies,’ and ‘special assistants’ does one mayor need,” Craney told the Herald. “Taxpayers are more than generous to give taxes to pay for important services and infrastructure needs but for the city of Boston, their taxpayers are starting to see a significant pattern of paying for their mayor’s political posse with generous salaried positions.”

A city spokesperson told the Herald that Wu’s office “has completed compensation analyses across more areas of the City workforce than before in order to fill key vacancies and ensure City compensation keeps up with the cost of living increases” over the past two years.

“Mayor’s office staff support areas of work across City government including early childhood, climate, and community safety,” the spokesperson continued.

According to the data, former Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s total gross pay in 2019 and 2020 was $199,000. When Wu first took office in 2021, her annual salary was $111,475. That figure climbed to $206,692 in 2022 and $207,000 in 2023, according to the figures.

The mayor’s salary is set through legislation by the city council each year.

Wu’s Chief of Operations, Dion Irish, ranks second in 2023 total pay with $187,500, followed by Chief Communications Officer Jessicah Pierre, Chief of Staff Tiffany Chu and Policy & Planning Chief Michael B. Firestone who each made $170,384, according to the data. Other members of the $100,000 earners club include deputy chiefs, several special assistants, three advisors, a strategy director and a technologist.

Boston University Associate Professor of Social Sciences and author Thomas Whalen said he thought the payroll would be higher, but admitted the salaries alone are not enough to accurately assess the payroll.

“It’s encouraging,” he said, “that it seems as if our mayor is not robbing the city blind. It seems well in line that Mayor Wu, at least from an administrative standpoint, seems to have things in line and competent.”

Whalen said a bigger concern of his is the city’s tax revenue from long-term leases signed in a pre-COVID world that are up for renewal soon.

“A lot of those companies now are not going to renew those leases and it is going to be a tremendous hit on the city’s revenue,” he said. “I wonder if, moving forward, the mayor’s office is going to be forced to do some austerity moves for that.”

Craney suggested a direct benefit to taxpayers’ pockets by eliminating several of the higher-paying positions and providing Bostonians with a “broad-based tax relief.”

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That eye-popping tally includes four police officers who took home $400,000-plus and 65 other city employees who eclipsed $300,000 — mostly police and firefighters, with a wiring inspector rising in the lofty ranks.

In total, 10,409 employees claimed $100,000 or more in 2023, slightly more than 40% of the entire city payroll.

“It’s shocking. People go into law enforcement for all the right reasons, but making $400,000 is not one of them,” said Mike McCormack, a former city councilor.

The payroll for 2023 posted by the city on Wednesday lists base pay to total pay based on overtime, details, “other” and “Quinn Education” for police officers earning degrees in criminal justice. That statute was passed by the state legislature in 1970.

But the growing number of city employees earning $100,000 has fiscal watchdogs concerned.

“Mayor Wu’s payroll looks a lot more like the payroll for Harvard than the city,” said Paul Craney, spokesman for MassFiscal. He was alluding to speculation the mayor was heading over to Harvard Kennedy School. A thread she has repeatedly denied.

Craney said a 14% growth in six-figure pay as Boston faces fiscal pressures is good for the “bureaucrats” but bad for the taxpayers.

“The mayor is clearly patronizing by repaying the bureaucrats,” he added.

The Wu administration pushed back saying the 2023 payroll report — usually released every year in February — includes some retroactive pay.

“The City settled a number of collective bargaining contracts which include contractual increases for those employees covered by those contracts in addition to retroactive pay where applicable,” a spokesman said.

“Additionally, over the last two years, the administration has completed compensation analyses across more areas of the City workforce than before in order to fill key vacancies and ensure City compensation keeps up with cost of living increases,” the spokesman added.

Most city employees are required to live in Boston, with some exceptions negotiated during collective bargaining or waivers granted by the Residency Commission.

The median home price in Boston is $800,000, at last count. And that’s not factoring in a sky-high 7.56% mortgage rate.

Renting a one-bedroom apartment in the city goes for $3,311, according to Apartments.com.

Boston city payroll for 2023: Your Tax Dollars at Work

As for other payroll tidbits, George Williams, project coordinator for the City of Boston’s Task Force on Reparations, earned $24,617 last year until he was terminated after being arrested at City Hall on trespassing and resisting arrest charges in May.

Go to the Herald's "Your Tax Dollars at Work" report online to search the entire city payroll. Send tips to joed@bostonherald.com.

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That was the mission of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s so-called “Office of Possibilities” when it was established a year ago under then-Secretary Gina Fiandaca.  And it still is now, even as the two-person operation has been rebranded with the more mundane, and perhaps less imaginative name, “The Lab @MassDOT.”

The two employees at “The Lab” make a combined $310,579 a year and are tasked with serving as a testing ground for “promising ideas,” the agency said.

The office was renamed after Fiandaca’s departure because “a lab is where experiments occur and ideas” are explored, a MassDOT spokesperson said.

In response to a request for an accounting of the 2023 work product from “The Lab,” a MassDOT spokesperson provided a general overview of what the two-person team does and a handful of examples of their work last year.

One effort saw “The Lab” reach out to transportation officials and experts in New York state to learn about technology that automatically reduces the speed of a vehicle in an effort to keep people from speeding.

The Massachusetts team looked at federal research into speed assist technology, met with the advocacy group America Walks, and attended a National Transportation Safety Board briefing on the matter.

State transportation officials argued the outreach, learning, and understanding of the technology by “The Lab” and an effort to figure out if it could work in Massachusetts is an important part of putting in place safety programs.

The office is also researching the use of telematics to improve infrastructure maintenance and identify locations where unsafe driving occurs. That is on top of testing safety programs like “direct vision” for large trucks, which looks to develop a standard way of measuring a driver’s blind zones.

Both former City of Boston workers, the office’s two employees make $166,400 and $144,179 a year. That is only a fraction of MassDOT’s $407 million payroll in 2023, according to records obtained by the Herald.

Nine employees at MassDOT were paid a total of more than $200,000, according to payroll records. The top paid employees was David Belanger Jr., a senior supervising engineer who earned a total of $234,358 in 2023, including $80,418 in overtime pay.

MassDOT 2023 payroll: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Another nine employees at the agency made more than $100,000 in overtime pay, with highway maintenance worker Zachary Fuller raking in $141,164 in extra dollars, according to payroll records.

Fiandaca, who officially stopped working for the administration at the end of the year after stepping down as transportation secretary, made a total of $163,829 in 2023 between serving as the head of the agency and later working as a senior advisor in the Healey administration.

Total overtime pay at MassDOT reached over $38 million and buyout pay for just over 440 employees totaled more than $4.4 million, according to state records.

MA public payroll: ‘Your Tax Dollars at Work’ 2023 database home 💸

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com. Follow the Watchdog newsletter for related coverage.

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com.

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Look for more as this list grows:

• Top 2,000 overtime earners for 2023
• Newton 2023 payroll NEW
• City of  Boston 2023 payroll
• Mass State Police 2023 payroll with OT
• MassDOC prison 2023 payroll
• MassDOT 2023 payroll with OT, buyouts
• MBTA payroll for 2023, OT and buyouts
• 2022 database homepage 

The ink is now dry on 2023, and the number of six-figure overtime earners in state government soared 25.4% in Gov. Maura Healey’s first year, a Herald payroll analysis shows.

That’s based on Comptroller data showing 276 state troopers, MBTA workers, nurses, prison guards, and a social worker all pocketed $100,000 or more in OT last year — a double-digit jump year-over-year.

The total payroll for 2023 was $9.33 billion — a 4.2% increase.

“No business in America can operate like this,” said Mass Fiscal’s Paul Craney. “That’s a huge jump. They seem to live in a fantasy world.”

The big winners in the bonus pay line item were the $200,000-plus clock punchers, with a State Police lieutenant earning an arresting $430,796 — off $251,014 in overtime, records show. (His base pay was $171,950.)

Two other State Police sergeants and an MBTA Transit Police officer also hit the OT lottery, pulling in $200,000-plus in added pay each.

A DOC prison guard was the one who boosted his base pay the most by adding $207,364 in overtime to his $90,523 slot for a hefty $301,046 in 2023. That’s a whopping W2.

This all hits as a projected budget gap of $224 million this fiscal year is predicted, as state tax revenues in the first months of fiscal year 2024 have come below expectations.

Gov. Maura Healey’s administration also predicted spending nearly $1 billion on the emergency shelter system in fiscal year 2025.

Massachusetts was a top 10 state for outbound residents, according to United Van Lines’ 47th annual National Movers Study.

“We are continuing to see the trend that Americans are moving to more affordable, lower-density areas across the country, with many heading to Southern states,” said Eily Cummins with United Van Lines.

Among those making an exit from Massachusetts, 28.4% moved because of their job, 19.2% for family considerations, 18% for retirement, 16% for lifestyle, and less than 3% each for health or cost reasons, according to the study.

“Massachusetts State House leaders need to take note of the reason why taxpayers are fleeing our state. The number one priority of 2024 should be economic competitiveness and this new report shows that,” Craney said.

He cited the Millionaire’s Tax as a driving factor for some of the out-migration.

The voter-approved 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million — revenue of which has been allocated to education and transportation needs in the state — is being cited as a reason why residents are leaving Massachusetts.

As the has Herald reported, some fiscal watchdogs are wondering what kind of performance can be expected by those logging in at such a rapid rate. And who, if anyone, is keeping tabs on all the OT.

Yet, for the first time in recent memory, no MBTA workers — except for that Transit Officer — break into even the Top 20 overtime earners.

Since 2007, the Herald has monitored state payroll spending in our “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report. We’re back for another year. We will roll out reports and databases beginning today.

As for total payroll, the UMass system leads the way with $1.55 billion on the books; it’s $595.36 million for the MBTA next in line.

The Trial Court is high up with $597.84 million with DOC next locking up $355.29 million in payroll.

The State Police come in fifth, at least in total pay, at $301.95 million for 2023, records show.

UMass again has the top earners at: $1.66M for Francisco Martin; $1.41M for Michael Collins; $1.14M for Terence Flotte; $853,500 for Partha Chakrabarti; and $831,065 for Donald Brown.

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Meet Hal Naughton, a 63-year-old career Democrat back-bench state rep. Earlier this year Naughton scored the ultimate dream job of all hacks – a $207,855-a-year basically no-show job as a state judge.

But now, in what is surely the most shocking event of the year in the hackerama, Naughton has done the unthinkable. After six months, he has resigned from his welfare sinecure.

To repeat, it’s all about the Benjamins.

I always say, it’s not that all Massachusetts judges are bad. It’s only that 98 percent of them who make the other 2 percent look bad.

What makes Naughton’s departure such a man-bites-dog story is that no hack state judge ever quits, for one simple reason. In Massachusetts, a lawyer becomes a judge only if he or she is starving to death while actually trying to practice law.

That’s why bust-out barristers scrape together enough cash to basically buy themselves that sinecure, an annuity. It’s all legal of course – campaign contributions, they’re called. As with so many other things, the scandal about buying judgeships is not what is illegal, it’s what is legal.

Naughton, however, appears to be the first judge appointed in living memory who was in fact able to make some real dough – even if his score did apparently come as a surprise, because otherwise why would he have bothered to kiss all the rear ends he had to grab his early retirement.

In his prior small-time, small-town practice, Naughton somehow stumbled into a mega-settlement. Suddenly that $207,855-a-year slot on the dole, I mean the bench, looked like small change.

As a lawyer, Naughton was involved in a multi-billion-dollar civil suit in which local water utilities sued some very deep-pocketed chemical companies, including DuPont and 3M.

As part of the settlement, a motion has just been filed for legal fees and costs of $95 million.

In his letter of resignation, Naughton said he was making a decision that was “best for my children.”

It took a while, but I finally tracked the judge emeritus down. I asked him the only question that anybody cares about right now. How much is he grabbing out of the settlement’s $95 million in legal fees?

“I have no idea,” Naughton said.

Ten million?

“Oh geez, I don’t know about that!”

Five million?

“Really, I have no idea. You know, I had worked on that case for five years. It was coming to fruition.”

Yeah, I said, but you must be looking at some mega-bucks here, because you could have been a judge until you’re 70, which is over $2 million right there, for doing absolutely nothing.

And behind that comes the pension, plus after retirement you can stay on as a part-timer.

Not bad, I said, for a part-time job. I specifically used that word part-time, to bait him, because these judges always claim they’re working hard, as opposed to hardly working. But when I said “part-time,” twice, all Naughton did was chuckle.

I guess that’s the way it is when you hit the lottery. Suddenly a lot of what you used to bother you is no longer such a pressing concern.

I mentioned again to Naughton about how great it must be to make $207,855 a year for working part-time.

“It is a dream job.”

And do you know why it’s such a “dream” job? Because as a judge you get more time than people who have real jobs to actually dream, because not ever having to actually go to work means you can sleep late every morning.

And since you never work after lunch, you can take a nap every afternoon. For a Massachusetts judge, every day is like that line from the old Lovin’ Spoonful song – “What a day for a day dream!”

I told Naughton that I was going to write that he is about to collect “millions” of dollars. Agree or disagree, Judge?

“I don’t know. It remains to be seen.”

He says that the court case with $95 million in legal fees was “my baby, my case. It’s gonna clean up water for a lot of people.”

Yeah, and speaking of cleaning up, that’s exactly what a handful of lawyers are going to do. Which is how these civil cases always end up.

When I heard that Naughton was, literally, cashing out, I assumed that he would go out like the hack he is — grabbing another fat kiss in the mail, in the form of what is known in hack judicial circles as “involuntary disability provision.”

It’s the hack judges’ dirty little secret – a governor can designate an extinguished jurist as no longer able to perform his, uh, duties, and sort of de-commission him or her. The order then goes to the hock shop known as the Governor’s Council, which rubber-stamps it.

Automatic pension! Forget vesting! Disability – no taxes! It’s the hackerama!

Since 1991, 14 judges have checked out on the involuntary disability provision gag. Two of the tragically affected judges were, like Naughton, ex-state reps, another was a former mayor and a fourth was the top fundraiser for a governor.

These judges all had diseases, like kleptomania. Under Paul Cellucci, a payroll patriot named Donovan beat an OUI rap and then checked out on the grounds that his “obsessive-compulsive disorder” compelled him to “hours of handwashing.”

Well, at least the water will be clean now. Thanks Judge Naughton!

Another judge claimed that subjecting her to showing up for as many as 15-20 hours a week, 35 weeks a year – the usual judicial workload – amounted to “knowingly subjecting her to further traumatic events (a model for torture).”

I naturally assumed that Naughton, as a 25-year solon, who served under three convicted-felon House speakers and a fourth, unindicted co-conspirator, would be continuing the tradition. But no.

“The way it was explained to me,” he said, “you have to spend X number of years to get the judicial pension.”

And sure enough, he just quit, with no involvuntary blah-blah-blah. Naughton fed at the trough, but unlike all his colleagues in both the legislative and judicial branches, apparently he’s not planning to lick the plate.

So farewell, Hal Naughton. Enjoy the Benjamins. At least for once they won’t be coming directly out of my pocket.

(Order Howie’s new book, “Paper Boy: Read All About It!” at howiecarrshow.com or amazon.com.)

A Herald analysis of the added hours shows 11 employees — including Transit Police officers — already eclipsing $100,000-plus in OT, state Comptroller records show.

Another 160 more T employees have punched in for at least $50,000 in added pay so far this year.

The Herald has requested a sit-down interview with MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng to ask how transit employees can work such daunting hours and still perform at maximum efficiency. Or, if there are other factors allowing them to rack up such hefty bonus pay year after year.

The Comptruller’s CTHRU payroll-tracking site shows the MBTA is by far the tops in overtime this year, with the State Police coming in second at $46.02 million in OT hours.

The state Department of Correction is at $40.83 million as that agency struggles again with capping added hours.

MassDOT, DMH, DDS, DCF, and the Suffolk Sheriff’s Department fall in behind with all of them above $13 million in overtime so far this year.

T workers clocked in with $99.07 million in OT last year and $85.29 million the year before, Comptroller records show.

The 2020 pandemic year saw overtime slip to $81.37 million after hitting $96.17 million in 2019, records show.

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In 2022, 49 city employees made more than $300,000, 771 over $200,000 and 9,101 over $100,000, with the increases particularly driven by newly-settled contracts and “other” pay.

Those marks are higher than in the past two years. In 2021, 40 made more than $300,000, further up from 35 in 2020. For $200,000, those numbers were 744 and 733 over 2021 and 2020. And the total making six figures rose to the current tally from 8,708 in 2021 and 8,451 in 2020.

It’s that time of the year again: the late-winter present the city drops annually in the form of the entire payroll for the previous calendar year. Released this week, the new data shows the above numbers, plus a larger total payroll and number of people getting money from the city.

Overall, the city’s payroll in 2022 was $1.93 billion, up from $1.87 billion and $1.82 billion the previous two years. The total number of people receiving checks also rose, hitting 23,204 in 2022, with the city paying 22,546 and 21,858 the previous two years.

The median salary for city workers has nudged up just slightly, now at around $79,300, up from $78,400 and $78,900 the previous two years.

The three top earners each have already been in the headlines. Number one is Lt. Detective Donna Gavin, who won a big lawsuit over gender discrimination against the city in 2020.

Then there’s former Boston Schools Superintendent Breda Cassellius, who reached a separation agreement with the city after Mayor Michelle Wu took over. Cassellius — listed in the payroll data with a Minneapolis ZIP code, as she returned to her homeland of the North Star State after she and the district split — made $596,949.44, including $417,839.83 in “other” pay following the separation agreement.

The Herald previously reported that under the agreement she was due at least $311,000.

Then next is Jack Dempsey, the Boston Fire Department commissioner who retired halfway through the year and in total brought home $446,406.31. That included $312,752.53 in “other” pay.

Rounding out the top five are cops Lt. Detective Stanley Demesmin and Lt. Sean Smith, who made $397,258.69 and $386,054.33 on the backs of big-money overtime pay. Demesin made more than $196,000 and Smith more than $142,000 in OT last year, good for second-highest and 10th-highest citywide respectively.

That category of “other” pay that propelled the likes of Gavin, Cassellius and Dempsey to the top was unusually high this year, continuing a trend. That mark hit $74.5 million last year, up from $65.1 million the previously year and $57.3 million the one before that.

City officials chalked that largely up to Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund — ESSER — pay, which is federal pandemic-era cash intended to help teachers. The officials said that one-off pay was counted as “other” for payroll purposes.

Officials pointed to this as one notable element of the new payroll data, with the other being that it shows the effect of most of the city’s union contracts getting resolved. Wu — who herself makes $207,000 as mayor — came into office with essentially all contracts open, and now all the big ones besides uniformed police and fire are closed.

That’s why, the city says, pay rose in general, and why retro pay also spiked. That’s at $8.7 million last year, up from $6.5 million the previous year and just $352,000 last year.

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For the first time, the two top bosses are also piloting the quasi-state agency at the lofty pay of $400,000 a year.

The payroll for quasi-state agencies, autonomous fiefdoms that run with various degrees of taxpayer underwriting, has just been updated for 2022 and Massport leads the way with 716 employees who earned $100,000 or more — a 29.24% increase in one year, state Comptroller records show.

The two top Massport executives, CEO Lisa Wieland and Director of Aviation Edward Freni, now make $417,609 and $413,678, respectively.

The climbing pay is the latest example of public payrolls in the state ballooning, mostly due to rampant overtime, but also the result of pay hikes. As the Herald has reported in the New Year in the annual “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report, there seems to be no ceiling.

“The state seems to be running out of control,” said MassFiscal’s Paul Craney, a longtime watchdog who is sounding the alarm on big pay in big government.

“There’s a lot of people trying to test the new governor to see if she’s willing to stand up for the taxpayers or even care,” he added. “It’s overwhelming. No one seems too concerned in this massive growth in payroll.”

A Massport spokeswoman said business is booming at the airport and port now that the pandemic is on the slide.

“In the last year, Massport’s business activity rose significantly, with passenger growth at Logan up by 60%. Total staffing remains below our pre-pandemic number and Massport implemented a furlough program (effective pay cut) in 2021. We are actively competing with other organizations and the private sector to recruit top talent,” the agency said in an emailed statement.

This all comes as some “eye-popping” overtime was doled out last year, as the Herald first reported last month.

Those big OT winners — usually dominated by State Police — now include nurses, MBTA workers and corrections officers. The pandemic with all its COVID testing and protocols must be a factor, but the hours add up fast.

The pay ranged from $478,172 for a Department of Mental Health nurse (who claimed $295,189 in overtime) to a state trooper paid $334,083 last year ($197,732 in OT).

Even the state Legislature is getting into the pay-hike habit, where stipends range from around $7,000 to nearly $90,000. That’s serious cash that’s basically doubling Speaker Ron Mariano’s and Senate President Karen Spilka’s pay with $109,163 stipends for holding court in those top jobs.

The king of the hill, as is true every year, remains the UMass system — home to the highest-paid public employees in Massachusetts, with three top earners all pushing past $1 million a year. They are all doctors who teach or run the medical school.

But, The UMass system had 4,447 employees who earned $100,000 and up, records show.

It’s your tax money, and it’s being spent from the big agencies to the semi-secret, quasi-state offices.

Go to bostonherald.com to view all the public payrolls and now Massport’s.

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com. Follow the Watchdog newsletter for related coverage.

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com. Go here for the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” homepage for more.

It’s the same basically across state government with those in charge grabbing a lion’s share of the extra hours. Out of the 20 top OT earners in the transportation department who all took home an extra $70,000 or more last year in bonus pay, all but one are male. They are also listed as “supervisor,” “foreman” or “coordinator.”

In total, three transportation officials earned $200,000 and up in 2022 while almost 1,400 earned $100,000 or more with OT a major driver of that take-home income, payroll records show.

MassDOT said Thursday evening OT is doled out due to a few factors.

“Overtime is distributed based on the operational needs of the assigned unit and the collective bargaining agreements of staff,” the department told the Herald.

“Generally,” they added, “supervisors tend to generate higher levels of overtime due to the requirements of their positions which require them to be present to supervise staff for operations that may occur after hours such as emergency and planned roadside maintenance and storm events.”

As the Herald has reported this month as part of the 16th year of the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report, overtime is being paid out across state government at a record pace.

Why? One expert says the labor crunch is opening up opportunities for those with jobs that require training.

“The huge labor shortage, in general, has been exacerbated in transit due to the long training required and that can lead to overtime for others,” said Professor Ruth Milkman of the City University of New York.

“During the pandemic, a lot of people got sick died or left,” Milkman, a labor researcher, explained saying there’s little big bosses can do but shell out OT.

The alternative, she added, is hiring more workers and training them quickly. “But that is going to take time,” she added. Pay is also a factor as employers compete for skilled labor.

That means the big OT winners in Massachusetts government — usually dominated by State Police — now include nurses, MBTA workers and corrections officers.

The state’s overtime budget pushed some past $300,000 in total pay last year — with two eclipsing $400,000 in gross income.

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com. Follow the Watchdog newsletter for related coverage.

Three top earners last year pushed their pay past $300,000 with the bonus hours and were quickly followed by 26 mostly fellow prison officers who took home $200,000 and up in gross pay thanks to OT, payroll records show.

It’s the latest example of overtime being spent across the commonwealth at eye-popping rates, as the Herald first reported last week.

DOC spokesman Jason Dobson said the mission is “balancing its security needs and fiscal responsibilities.” He did not address, however, if the extensive hours clocked put guards or inmates at risk.

“There are circumstances when overtime is required to ensure the safety of those living and working in secure facilities. Overtime needs fluctuate for a variety of reasons including but not limited to attrition, illness, inmate hospital trips and retirement,” he added.

Dobson, deputy director of communications, did say the DOC is looking for recruits.

“The Department remains focused on recruiting, training, and activating classes of new, diverse candidates. In the last 4 months, we have engaged prospective candidates at more than 50 job fairs, civil service informational sessions and career days,” he added.

It’s clear from the data that some guards are going for all the OT they can grab.

A Herald payroll analysis — part of the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report — found that prison guards with modest base pay from $82,000 and up still earned $200,000 or more from extra hours.

It was once the State Police who dominated the annual list of overtime earners, but a crackdown on abuse has eased those rolls. Now the OT also includes the guards, a few nurses and MBTA workers.

One Department of Correction guard told the Herald a week ago a few colleagues seem to be the ones who jump on all the OT.

“A couple of us do a lot of hours,” said DOC officer Edward Johansen, who earned $215,168 in overtime finishing with $313,896 in total pay, Comptroller records show.

“I have 10-year-old twins and after 10 years your body gets used to” the lack of sleep, he added. “I eat right. I do my job,” he said when pressed if he can work all those hours and not see any slip in his performance.

He added he’ll probably ease up in the coming year. Others, however, did not return messages left by the Herald seeking answers to the same questions.

Go to bostonherald.com to view every DOC salary and 160,000-plus more state employee pay. Send tips to joed@bostonherald.com.

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort highest to lowest. Go to the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” homepage for more payrolls.

That’s all according to the latest payroll report from the state Comptroller that’s being analyzed this month by the Herald in the annual “Your Tax Dollars at Work” report.

The UMass system had 4,447 employees who earned $100,000 and up, records show.

That includes three million-dollar earners plus three who pulled down $800,000 or more; seven who made at least $600,000; nine at $500,000-plus; 25 at $400,000 and beyond; and 102 who topped $300,000.

You can see all this and more for yourself at bostonherald.com. And, all tips welcome to newstips@bostonherald.com.

It’s your tax money, we just chase where it’s all going.

That wish didn’t happen last year.

The UMass system had 4,447 employees who earned $100,000 and up, records show.

That includes three million-dollar earners plus three who pulled down $800,000 or more; seven who made at least $600,000; nine at $500,000-plus; 25 at $400,000 and beyond; and 102 who topped $300,000.

The UMass football coach and other assorted presidents and provosts quickly followed.

The three UMass system big winners who pulled down more than $1 million in 2022 included two medical school leaders and the new UMass Amherst basketball coach.

The million-dollar hires include:

• Dr. Michael Collins, paid $1.28 million as the chancellor of the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester. He’s also a professor.
• Dr. Terence Flotte, who earned $1.13 million as executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean at the medical school.
• Head men’s basketball coach Francisco Martin. The team is off to a strong 9-4 start.

A UMass spokesman did not respond with a comment — including questions about a UMass nurse who pulled down $205,535 in OT last year boosting her take-home pay to $348,045, as the Herald reported.

Civil liberties litigator Harvey Silverglate, long a critic of the college system, said the problem is bigger than OT for nurses.

He told the Herald the “massive increase in college administrators” has sent tuition skyrocketing and free speech plummeting.

“When you have an army of basically useless administrators needing something to do … independent liberty is sacrificed,” he said. “They are wrecking what college should be. We need independent thinking.”

Silverglate is running for the Harvard Board of Overseers to try and turn the college back, and hopefully others will follow, to what higher education should be about, he added.

“We don’t need students to parrot the college line, we need independent thinking,” he said, and less “Orwellian thought control.”

UMass, according to a recent announcement, ranks 28th among all U.S. public universities and is the top public university in New England.

Two University of Massachusetts programs – Life Sciences at No. 78 and Computer Science at No. 85 – both ranked in the top 100 worldwide, according to a fall survey.

The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School is also home to a Nobel Prize winner Professor Craig C. Mello — who is not listed on the payroll and, according to past reports, is paid by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

To search on this database, click the magnifying glass icon (at right) and enter names and more. Use the scroll bar at the bottom to move the data over to the right to sort by highest to lowest. Send any tips or questions to joed@bostonherald.com. Follow the Watchdog newsletter for related coverage.

This project has evolved but the foundation remains the same — we let readers scan the data at bostonherald.com and see where taxes are being spent. Most of the databases originate from the state Comptroller’s office. We then dig for stories and chase tips.

In 2023, we’ll be using the state’s Public Records Law — let’s see if incoming Gov. Maura Healey takes down the Executive Branch exemption — to dig for more. Federally, we use the Freedom of Information Act, that John Kerry ignores. But that’s another story.

We always rely on readers to point us in the right direction. All tips welcome to newstips@bostonherald.com or, as a virtual open-door policy, joed@bostonherald.com.