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Jurisdiction file

City of Rockford employee compensation

Source file: City of Rockford, IL — Employee Compensation / ingested Jun 19, 2026

In 2025, City of Rockford reported 1,280 employees across 17 departments, with a total payroll of $100.7M. The highest-paid distinct record was Michele Pankow (Fire Department) at $226,264.

Latest year
2025
Total payroll
$100.7M
Departments
17
Employees
1,280
Top record
$226,264

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 2025. 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 Rockford pay vs. the surrounding job market

Across 13 roles that match a standard occupation, City of Rockford’s median base salary runs 9% above the median wage for the same work in Rockford, IL. 10 of those roles pay above the local median and 3 pay below it.

Roles compared
13
Above local median
10
Below local median
3
Typical gap
+9%

This covers the 237 employees (19% 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.

17 departments

Fire Department373$99,396
Police Department347$109,338
Public Works194$64,596
Rockford Public Library93$37,345
Health & Human Services84$44,448
Community Development45$69,867
Finance Department35$56,866
Modcvp23$50,706
Information Technology & Integration21$75,373
City Council17$13,541
Legal Department15$72,805
Workforce Investment Board9$68,121
Mayor's Office6$78,786
Human Resources6$78,661
Temporary5$13,849
Board of Election4$38,846
Legal3$46,959