Miami’s new salary transparency website makes it easier to see what city employees are scheduled to earn. What it still won’t show is the full breakdown of compensation behind those figures.
City of Miami officials last week launched a new online salary transparency portal that allows residents to search the names, job titles and salaries of more than 5,000 municipal employees — pulling back a curtain on a workforce whose pay and benefits are approaching $1 billion in annual spending.
The new portal, approved in February by the City Commission at the request of District 3 Commissioner Rolando Escalona, allows users to search employees by name and view their annual salary, gross pay year-to-date and most recent paycheck.
“Transparency and accountability are essential to building trust between government and the residents we serve,” Escalona said in a statement announcing the launch. “Residents deserve a government that remains committed to openness at every level.”
The new portal is modeled on a similar system already used by Miami-Dade County.
The portal comes as public scrutiny of City Hall spending has intensified.
Earlier this year, the Coconut Grove Spotlight reported that spending on salaries has increased 41% since 2021 to $591.5 million, while employee benefit costs have risen 62% to $356.2 million.
Together, salaries and benefits will cost taxpayers $947.7 million this year — more than half of the city’s $1.8 billion operating budget and roughly 77% of the General Fund, the city’s primary account for day-to-day government operations.
Read more: Inside City Hall: Miami’s Pay Raise Machine
The new portal provides a far more convenient way for residents to access information that was already public. While government salary information is generally subject to disclosure, Miami officials have traditionally released such data only in response to public records requests filed under Florida’s open-records law.
While the new portal increases transparency in some respects, it does not provide a full picture of city compensation practices.
The portal provides annual salary, year-to-date gross pay and recent paycheck data, but does not disclose how those figures are calculated. While some employees appear to be on pace to earn more than their listed salaries, the system does not identify how much of those earnings come from overtime, bonuses or other supplemental compensation.
For some city employees, particularly in public safety departments, such supplemental pay can substantially increase earnings beyond base salary. With pension benefits often tied to an employee’s highest-earning years, those additional payments can have long-term implications for both the city’s pension obligations and taxpayers.
In April, city officials declined the Spotlight’s request for records showing total earnings figures for its employees, arguing that the city does not maintain such records and is not legally required to create them in response to a public records request.
Read More: Inside City Hall: Miami’s Salary Secret
The new portal is the first of two initiatives sponsored by Escalona intended to increase accountability and transparency in city government.
Last month, he introduced legislation that would require the creation of a centralized, easily searchable online portal providing public access to audio and video recordings of all city board and committee meetings. The commission will take up the measure at a later date.
“Residents deserve a government that remains committed to openness at every level,” Escalona said in his recent statement.
