Jurisdiction file
City of Chicago employee compensation
In 2026, City of Chicago reported 31,962 employees across 39 departments, with a total payroll of $3.5B. The highest-paid distinct record was Michael Mc Murray (Chicago Department of Aviation) at $350,000.
- Latest year
- 2026
- Total payroll
- $3.5B
- Departments
- 39
- Employees
- 31,962
- Top record
- $350,000
What the records show
Department analytics
Median pay and headcount show where payroll dollars concentrate and which agencies define the jurisdiction’s compensation profile.
Largest departments
The 12 departments employing the most people in 2026. Bar length is headcount. These departments drive most of the payroll and set the overall pay mix.
Highest-paying departments
Departments ranked by median total compensation — the typical employee's pay. High medians usually signal specialized or professional workforces (e.g. medical, legal, or public-safety agencies) rather than across-the-board higher pay.
Compared with the local labor market
City of Chicago pay vs. the surrounding job market
Across 73 roles that match a standard occupation, City of Chicago’s median base salary runs 3% above the median wage for the same work in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN. 56 of those roles pay above the local median and 17 pay below it.
- Roles compared
- 73
- Above local median
- 56
- Below local median
- 17
- Typical gap
- +3%
This covers the 15,921 employees (50% of the workforce) in roles whose job titles map to a standard occupation. Titles that are too generic to match one — broad classification series, and job families the survey reports by academic field — are left out rather than guessed at, so the figure describes the comparable subset, not the entire payroll.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Department index
Open an agency file
Department pages break down pay distributions, common job titles, and the employees behind the latest published payroll.
39 departments