Of almost $880 million paid to greater than 10,000 staff in 2024, 14.3% got here within the type of extra time on the MBTA, with greater than 100 staff incomes an additional six figures on high of their base pay, in response to a Herald overview.
From the beginning of this 12 months till the final days of June, the information present that the T is on monitor to reach at across the identical extra time determine, with 13.7% of earnings this 12 months reported as extra time.
Publicly out there information offered by the Workplace of the State Comptroller and sorted to incorporate everybody coated by an MBTA bargaining group, exhibits there have been no less than 113 folks paid greater than $100,000 in extra time pay on the T final 12 months.
Thus far this 12 months there are no less than 4 staff who’ve managed to rack up sufficient time to interrupt the $100k mark early.
The very best paid worker on the MBTA in 2024 was Normal Supervisor Phil Eng, who earned a complete of $546,683. Thus far in 2025 he’s made $256,873.
Aside from the GM, nobody has hit the $250k mark but this 12 months, however MBTA police Lt. Manes Cadet and Sgt. Joseph Sacco, together with MBTA Chief Security Officer Patrick Lavin, have all made it previous $200k, the comptroller’s information exhibits.
A complete of 70 staff made greater than 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 {dollars} working for the MBTA in 2024, and 317 made greater than $200,000. Virtually 4,200 MBTA staff listed within the information set — about 4 for each 10 folks paid by the MBTA in 2024 — made greater than $100k final 12 months.
In keeping with the dataset, the very best paid staff in 2024 after Eng have been Cadet, Sacco, MBTA police Lt. Mark Gillespie, Lavin, and foreman John Caruso.
Cadet took house $467,634 final 12 months, of which $274,869 was extra time. Sacco earned $398,629, out of which $257,930 got here by the use of extra time. Caruso was paid $316,685, with $167,993 earned working further shifts. Lavin made $360,927 in 2024 however, together with different MBTA executives, didn’t make any extra time pay.
Thus far the checklist of high earners for 2025 seems a lot the identical as for 2024, with Eng on the high, adopted by Cadet, Sacco, Lavin, and Caruso. Nicolas Choubah, this system director for the alternative of North Station’s Draw One Bridge, tops out the checklist of high 5 non-GM staff.
Lt. Cadet has already earned $121,348 in extra time for 2025, making $218,868 in whole, whereas Sgt. Sacco managed to overhaul him on extra time at $139,989, along with his wage making up the distinction in his $216,921 pay. Caruso has netted $103,596 in extra time thus far this 12 months, which on high of his base pay places him at $182,986.
Choubah, who payroll information present joined the MBTA late in 2024, has made $177,903 for his work thus far in 2025 however doesn’t earn extra time.
In whole, the comptroller’s information exhibits that these MBTA staff who do earn extra time pay took house no less than $126,386,271 in further earnings final 12 months, and the T has already paid out $68,739,077 in extra time this 12 months.
Along with making the highest pay checklist, Manes and Sacco have been the highest two extra time earners in 2024. They’re adopted by MBTA Police officer Kelly Daniel, who made $186,808 in extra time on $300,941 pay, night time crew foreman Thomas O’Neil, who earned $169,756 in extra time on $292,932 pay, and Caruso.
Sacco leads on extra time thus far in 2025, adopted by Cades, foreman Ahmad Barakati, who has made $104,267 in extra time out of $167,845 in pay, Caruso, and Kelly, who has made $95,244 of his $159,348 pay in extra time.
The overview of MBTA earnings comes following a examine by the Pioneer Institute which discovered working prices approach up on the T after the company’s Fiscal and Administration Management Board was disbanded in 2021. The examine confirmed that working prices climbed by greater than 5% in every of the 2 years that adopted, then jumped by almost 15% within the subsequent 12 months.
Eng, talking with the Herald final week, pushed again on the conclusions reached by the examine and MBTA critics, noting that simply three years in the past the Federal Transit Administration really helpful the T surge hiring and stop deferral of upkeep.
With that advice in hand, the T spent simply over a 12 months closing sections of monitor for days or even weeks at a time to sort out upkeep which prior to now would have been carried out throughout weekends or in a single day hours. Beneath the earlier upkeep schedule, Eng mentioned, it could have taken the MBTA 4 many years to do the “record work” they managed in 14 months.
If getting all of that work carried out meant extra hiring and longer shifts then so be it, Eng mentioned. The driving public has famous the absence of 220 velocity restrictions and the revitalized stations, he mentioned, and that’s what actually issues. The MBTA, he instructed the Herald, shouldn’t be a enterprise and doesn’t attempt to make a revenue, however fairly goals to be “the world class transportation network that the region deserves.”
“I have no issue defending the amount of hours that were spent, including overtime, to accomplish historic work,” Eng mentioned.
Paul Craney, Govt Director at Mass Fiscal Alliance, instructed the Herald that the extra time information demonstrates an underlying drawback on the T. They’re at all times in want of cash, “yet, somehow it has room for hundreds of employees to rack up six figures in overtime.”
“These kinds of bloated payouts are a clear sign of why the T is in such serious financial trouble. Instead of delivering reforms tied to cost, Beacon Hill keeps writing blank checks while ignoring the system’s deep-seated structural problems. Taxpayers and riders deserve a transit system that prioritizes efficiency, safety, and transparency, not one that operates like a patronage machine,” Craney mentioned.
