Who made the Top 50 list of Miami-Dade’s highest paid county employees? Search the data
In Miami-Dade County government, lawyers received the highest paychecks on the list of the top 50 best paid employees last year.
The county government’s top earner is also its top attorney. Geri Bonzon-Keenan, appointed County Attorney in early 2021, took home about $405,000 in compensation.
That makes her the county’s best-paid employee for 2021, according to a Miami Herald compilation of county payroll data. The prior year, the top earner was Bonzon-Keenan’s predecessor running the 410-person County Attorney’s Office, Abigail Price-Williams, who made about $415,000 a year before retiring in late 2020.
Lawyers hold 14 of the Top 20 slots in the Herald’s compensation rankings for Miami-Dade government, which employs about 30,000 people. County government is the second largest employer in Miami-Dade, after the school system, which has more than 34,000 employees.
The Herald obtained compensation data for the more than 33,000 people listed as county employees in 2021. The rankings only calculate wages, overtime and cash benefits, but not one-time payments tied to retirement or severance.
The rankings also omit off-duty overtime paid by companies employing firefighters, paramedics and police for private events, such as traffic control for a Miami Dolphins game.
READ MORE: The Herald’s prior list of Miami-Dade County’s best-paid employees
To eliminate the small payouts that come with employees who only worked a few hours a week or who joined Miami-Dade’s workforce late in the year, the Herald eliminated anyone earning less than $10,400. That’s equivalent to what a part-time worker would make earning $10 an hour, Florida’s minimum wage at the end of 2021.
The screening for minimum pay left the ranking with 29,164 employees in the database. The Top 50 earners are listed in the chart above. You can search the entire list by browsing the Herald’s search engine below. Select individual departments to see the best-paid employees by agency, or keep that selection blank to view the entire list.
Compensation is receiving more attention in the days before the final vote of Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s 2023 budget proposal.
READ MORE: Miami-Dade commissioners quietly endorse a big compensation hike for themselves in budget
One proposal would more than double compensation for the 13 county commissioners starting Oct. 1, from about $60,000 a year to $138,000. Most of that comes from a retirement contribution jumping from $11,000 a year to about $65,000. Regular pay for commissioners would increase from about $48,000 to roughly $78,000.
More than 3,000 county employees earned more than $138,000 in 2021. At $78,000, the commissioners’ pay would rank closer to 14,000th place, roughly midway on the list of all county employees.
Another change in the budget up for a final vote Sept. 20 would lift a 10-year ban on extra cash compensation for senior county administrators. Called “executive benefits,” they consist of expense stipends, car allowances and other cash payments that can add up to $18,000 to an employee’s annual compensation.
In 2012, then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez eliminated executive benefits for all employees reporting to him — the bulk of county administrators outside of the County Attorney’s Office and County Commission staff. That restriction is lifted under the proposed pay plan Levine Cava’s budget office prepared.
Levine Cava said this week she doesn’t expect to use the new authority during the 2023 budget year.
“I don’t have any plans or proposals to change executive benefits,” she said after a budget town hall in Miami Lakes on Tuesday night.
Levine Cava earned about $200,000 last year and ranked No. 579 on the list. That put her well below her top deputy, Chief Operations Officer Jimmy Morales, who landed in the No. 48 slot with compensation of $285,000.
This story was originally published September 14, 2022 at 5:01 PM.