How much do state employees in Kansas make? Search this database to find out.
You pay state employees, but do you know how much?
A collection of databases makes that information easy to find. You can search by job, department or agency, or an employee’s last or partial name. The information is available from public records under Kansas law.
While the vast majority of public employees’ pay comes from taxpayers, some funding may come from private grants, user fees and other sources.
The data includes part-time and full-time employees, as well as employees who worked a partial year. Other factors affect pay, including experience, education, specialized training and skill level.
Kansas public employee salaries
Compensation data is on the basis of gross pay for a fiscal year, which runs from July 1st through June 30th. Gross pay amounts include all pay received by an employee and is not a base salary.
The data includes names of all state employees with the exception of certain positions required to be kept confidential under the Kansas Open Records Act or other state and federal laws.
Those exclusions are specific positions within the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Kansas Highway Patrol, Kansas Department of Revenue and Kansas Racing and Gaming Commission.
Other exclusions are resident workers at state hospital institutions, students and graduate teaching assistants at state universities, National Guardsmen, and home members within the Veteran’s Commission.
The database stands on its own and doesn’t provide an apples-to-apples comparison with others because some governments provide base salaries while others show all compensation, including overtime.
Search the database by typing in the person’s last name or full name. An auto-complete feature will help you find the persons you are looking for. A drop-down menu will help you find the agency or job title you are searching for.
Why publish people’s pay?
Employee salaries often make up the single largest item in governments’ budgets, just like in a private company. Making the information available can provide insights into how fairly governments compensate public workers, how the pay compares with salaries in the private sector and how pay varies by position.
The Kansas Department of Administration publishes state employee pay data on its KanView website.
Publishing people’s income is personal, which is why there should be compelling reasons for doing it, as noted above. In addition, as public records, the information should be readily available o the public. The databases do not include personal information such as addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social security numbers.
In addition to being published by governments, public employees’ salaries already are published in some other forums. For example, they are frequently noted in news stories about new hires, annual pay raises, budget discussion, negotiations with employee groups and more.
In the private sector, most companies release employees’ pay only for top-level executives, as part of disclosure requirements of publicly held companies.
This story was originally published December 4, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
