How much do state employees in Missouri 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 Missouri law.
While the vast majority of public employees’ pay comes from taxpayers, some funding comes 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
Missouri public employee salaries
Compensation data is on the basis of gross pay for a calendar year. For the current year, gross pay is what the employee has received year to date. It includes all pay received by an employee and is not a base salary.
The data includes names of all state employees except those closed from public view according to the Missouri Sunshine Law or other state or federal law. In some instances, names have been withheld to protect their confidentiality.
The Missouri Housing Development Commission, Missouri Agriculture and Small business Development Authority, colleges and university employees are not included in the database.
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 have 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 the salaries in the private sector and how pay varies by position.
Missouri publishes state employee pay data on its Missouri Accountability Portal 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 to the public. The database here does 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.
