A third of T workers cash in with $100G wages

While the MBTA’s payroll dropped overall, nearly onethird of its employees raked in more than $100,000 last year — an increase of 18 pecent over 2016.

Figures released by the MBTA show that 2,066 of the agency’s 6,421 workers made six figures in total pay, up from the 1,690 workers who cleared $100,000 or more last year. The salary numbers include total pay but do not specifically break out overtime earned by individual employees.

And though total payroll dropped to $552.3 million in 2017 from $563 million in 2016, overtime costs surged — going from $64.2 million in 2016 to $72.2 million in 2017.

“There was an increase in overtime spending as a direct result of the elevated level of state-of-good-repair work that was carried out last year,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said, adding the agency replaced rail service with buses 118 times during track work. “These efforts require support from extra MBTA personnel across multiple disciplines to perform the necessary work, implement replacement plans, maintain service throughout the diversions, and restore service after the work is completed.”

The MBTA is currently mulling a fare increase to deal with a $111 million operating budget. Pesaturo said the agency has reduced employees through attrition and retirement, and that the T has “launched a concerted effort to keep the rate of cost growth at or below the rate of revenue growth.”

However, employees are still pulling in hefty paychecks. Six workers made more than $200,000 in 2016, but 18 employees topped that figure in 2017.

Wires foreman Perry Yee was the highest-paid employee last year — his base salary was $115,377 but overtime and other pay brought him up to $270,634 overall.

Yee was also the highestpaid employee in 2016, when he earned $227,022.

STAFF FILE PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER EVANS MONEY TRAIN: The MBTA’s payroll fell by $10 million in 2017, but hundreds more agency employees were paid at least $100,000 during the year.