SACRAMENTO, Calif. – On Thursday, California State Controller Malia M. Cohen published the 2025 self-reported payroll data for California special districts, qualifying joint powers commissions and nonprofit organizations on the Government Compensation in California website.<\/p>\n
The data reveals more than $16 billion in total compensation across thousands of public entities.<\/p>\n
According to the State Controller’s Office, the data covers 165,338 positions reported by 3,018 special districts, approximately $12.8 billion in wages and $3.4 billion in employer-paid health and retirement contributions.<\/p>\n
Of the 3,182 special districts, joint powers entities and qualifying nonprofits required to report, 78 failed to file and 86 submitted incomplete reports.<\/p>\n
The 2025 publication includes 48 types of special districts performing 91 unique activities, including water, transportation, library, financial, fire protection, healthcare and community services.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransparency is an essential part of responsible fiscal management,\u201d said Controller Cohen. \u201cBy publishing more than $16 billion in compensation data, we are giving taxpayers, policymakers, and local leaders a clearer view of how special districts, qualifying joint powers commissions and nonprofit organizations manage public resources. Complete and accurate reporting strengthens public trust and supports informed decision-making in the communities these districts serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The data shows 9 of the 10 positions reporting the highest total wages were in the healthcare industry. The remaining position was with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.<\/p>\n
Three of the ten positions reporting the highest total wages reflect physicians who received lump sum payments of $800,000 or more in 2025.<\/p>\n
Four of the ten positions reporting the highest total wages reflect employees who received more than $1 million in annual regular pay.<\/p>\n
The State Controller’s Office says the\u00a0ten special districts reporting the highest average wages were in the fire and public safety sector.<\/p>\n
California law requires cities, counties and special districts to report compensation data annually to the State Controller.<\/p>\n
The Government Compensation in California website publishes pay and benefit information for more than 2 million government positions in California, as reported annually by each public entity.<\/p>\n
Users of the website can view compensation levels on maps and search by region, narrow results by district name or job title and export raw data or customized reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. – On Thursday, California State Controller Malia M. Cohen published the 2025 self-reported payroll data for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,35460,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-452611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-california","tag-california-state-controller","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}