Six-figure earners multiply at PPS, while Black employee paychecks lag behind

Salaries continue to rise at the cash-strapped Pittsburgh Public Schools district, where the number of employees taking home over $100,000 has shot up by nearly a quarter in a single academic year. Still, wage gaps between Black and white employees persist.PublicSource’s third annual analysis of payroll data in Pittsburgh Public Schools shows that the district paid $292 million in salaries and overtime in 2023, an increase of $15 million from the previous year.The median income for the district’s 4,346 salaried and non-salaried employees was about $68,330. Of those, 1,368 employees made more than $100,000, a 22% increase from 2022.Spending on teacher salaries, a significant chunk of total employee earnings, increased by 4%. The district employed 2,170 teaching professionals in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year. The teaching staff, which includes pre-K, day-to-day substitutes and hourly adjunct teachers, were paid a total of $169.3 million.District CFO Ron Joseph said the rise in personnel spending is driven largely by board-approved contacts and the salary schedule in the collective bargaining agreement between the district and the teacher’s union. Superintendent Wayne Walters received the highest salary in the district, taking home $283,250 in base pay, almost double the rate of his deputies...