(The Center Square) — For a growing number of corrections officers in Allegheny County, overtime now rivals – and, in some cases, exceeds – their base salary, an analysis of pay data by The Center Square found.
Last year, 107 guards at Pittsburgh’s main jail earned at least half their pay from overtime, according to county records. As recently as 2016, only 28 did so.
The nearly four-fold increase reveals the extent to which the jail system in western Pennsylvania relies on overtime. Jail staff made up just 11 percent of the county’s workforce last year. Yet they accounted for 52 percent of those whose overtime pay exceeded half of their total earnings.
Michael D. Makowsky, associate professor at the John E. Walker Department of Economics at Clemson University, said while he is not familiar with the particulars of Allegheny County, he said its trendline is worrisome.
“When I see overtime doubling or tripling, that tells me something is wrong,” he said in an interview. “Government officials have gone from supporting day-to-day flexibility or backfilling a few positions to plugging holes in the budget.”
Allegheny County’s jail also led all departments in overtime pay, totaling $12.2 million—about $4.5 million more than the next-highest agency, emergency medical services.
Among all 6,300 county employees, corrections officer Chrissian L. Pierce earned the most from overtime—$129,500. His overtime pay was 1.5 times his salary of $85,333.
To put those figures in perspective, Pierce was the county’s fourth highest-paid employee at $200,000, more than the superintendent of police, Christopher G. Kearns, or the warden, Trevor Wingard.
The county employees who earned the third- and fourth-highest overtime totals last year, Raoul Rapneth IV and Janet M. Yagatich, were also jail guards who earned more than $100,000 in overtime pay.
Most of paycheck
The data shows a clear pattern. For many corrections officers, overtime is no longer just a supplement; increasingly, it accounts for most of their paycheck. The trend comes even though the Allegheny County maintained its targeted ratio in February, of one correction officer (396) for every four inmates (1,682).
That raises questions about whether the county is avoiding hiring more staff—and what that means for costs and working conditions.
Jesse Geleynse, a public information officer for the Allegheny County Jail, declined comment. Brian Englert, president of the Allegheny County Prison Employees Independent Union, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Despite a population of 1.2 million, the 39th-largest in the country, Allegheny County has a jail system like many others nationwide. It relies on overtime to compensate for round-the-clock demands and persistent staffing shortages.
Auditor warning
Overtime is typically paid at time-and-a-half, or about 50% more than a worker’s regular rate. The boost has drawn fire from recent audit and budget reports, which have singled out prisons and law enforcement. While officials acknowledge that overtime may be necessary for around-the-clock institutions such as jails and prisons, it raises questions about cost and efficiency for taxpayers.
Last year, a state audit of the Connecticut State police warned the government to keep tabs on how agencies use overtime.
“Failure to adequately monitor overtime… may have… impacts on the budget,” it said.
Yet in Allegheny County, staffing shortages alone don’t tell the full story.
Last month, county offficials reported relatively few vacancies for corrections officers—11 open positions out of 396 officers overall. That’s down from a whopping 211 open positions for jail guards the county identified in July 2022.
The county’s jail system relies on both voluntary and mandatory overtime. In February, corrections officers voluntarily worked 1,596 overtime shifts. Another 451 overtime shifts were mandatory.
A report last year from the Pennsylvania Prison Society, a non-profit, found that inmates often spent the whole day in jail and raised concerns about food quality, highlighting broader pressures within the jail system.
Marc Joffe, formerly a senior policy analyst at the libertarian-leaning Reason Foundation, now with The California Policy Center, said overtime pay for public safety workers is a waste of taxpayer money except for one-time events like parades or marathons.
“It’s expensive,” Joffe said in an interview. “It’s time-and-a-half pay, and in the case of corrections officers, it makes them more tired on the job, which can lead to inmates escaping or causing them to start uncontrolled fights.”
