Here’s how many NJ Transit employees earned more than $100,000 in overtime

By Larry Higgs | nj.com (TNS)

For the first time in years, no locomotive engineers were among the top 10 NJ Transit employees in 2023 who increased their total pay by working overtime.

In fact, there are no engineers among the top 50 highest earners at the agency for the first time in several years, based on an analysis of NJ Transit 2023 salary records by NJ Advance Media obtained through an Open Public Record Act request.

But 82 employees did earn $100,000 or more in overtime in 2023 and another 900 workers plus earned between $50,000 and $99,249 in overtime, records show.

NJ Transit officials said there are legitimate reasons for that overtime, from covering the shifts of employees on vacation or sick leave, to working special events and for law enforcement participating in training drills with other agencies.

Overtime for workers with technical skills can result from when round the clock repair work is required to fix damage to rail infrastructure and restore service, and to maintain a fleet of aging rail vehicles. NJ Transit spent $216.3 million in overtime last year, a $15 million change from $201.6 million in 2022. The change is due to 3% wage increases under union contracts that took effect, NJ Transit officials said. Overtime made up 22.9% payroll in 2022 compared to 22.8% of payroll in 2023, according to agency figures.

“Overtime as a percentage of regular pay has been held stable year over year from (Fiscal Year) FY22 to FY23, said Jim Smith, an NJ Transit spokesperson.

Overtime totaled totaled $176.4 million in 2021. That pales when compared to New York’s MTA which paid a record $1.42 billion in overtime costs last year Newsday reported.

The biggest change between 2022 and 2023 is the ranks of locomotive engineers is at full staff, officials said.

“We have a full complement of necessary engineers which has reduced the amount of overtime and has eliminated cancelled trains due to engineer availability resulting in significantly improved reliability for our customers,” said John Chartier, an agency spokesperson.

He cited the Murphy administration’s engineer hiring and training blitz that started in 2018 which brought the ranks back to the full strength of roughly 400 engineers. Murphy declared the milestone met in April 2021 when he celebrated the graduation that month of the class that put the agency over the mark of 393 engineers that successfully completed the two-year training course.

Another factor Chartier mentioned for a lack of engineers in the top earner category is the current impasse over a new labor contract. Engineers are the only one of 19 rail unions that have not settled on a contact.

The high amount of specialized training and knowledge required of engineers is a reason the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen has rejected NJ Transits salary offer as being lower than salaries engineers on other commuter railroads and Amtrak earn.

NJ Transit argues their offer fits “pattern bargaining” and is the same as other rail unions received. Federal mediators are currently involved.

The employee with the highest total earnings is a conductor, who’s total pay bested CEO Kevin Corbett’s 2023 salary of $279,999, who is sixth on the list of highest earners.

There are five conductors in the top 10 who all made more than $100,000 in overtime pay. A conductor who worked for NJ Transit since December 1989 earned $101,056 in overtime, which, in addition to a $1,808 vacation cash in and $375 uniform allowance brought, their 2023 earning total to $296,566, the highest at NJT.

Another conductor who’s a 34-year veteran at the agency sits fifth on the list, earning $147,157 in overtime and cashing in $7,906 in used vacation time for a $284,944 total salary.

“The availability of overtime is based on seniority and covered under the (union) collective bargaining agreement,” Chartier said. “Train crew member shifts due to absences are filled using overtime in order to maintain minimum staffing levels per FRA ( Federal Railroad Administration) regulations.”

The agency currently has 1,186 active conductors.

The next highest overtime category are police. A lieutenant with 20 years on the NJ Transit police department earned $109,041 in overtime, for a total salary of $271,299 making them the highest paid police officer. There are 16 police officers in the top 50 highest earners, seven of whom earned over $100,000 in overtime.

Roughly 10% of police overtime is due to working special events and emergency response, Chartier said.

Police overtime results from staffing hundreds of special events across the state annually, and leading full-scale multi-agency emergency exercises, he said. Those training drills require significant planning, organizing and are typically conducted on weekends, he said.

Police overtime is reimbursable up to 20% in Homeland Security grant funding, Chartier said.

Employees who keep the trains running by repairing rail car fleet, fixing overhead catenary wire, track and other structures were among the top 10 salary earners in 2023.

They include a carman with 17 years NJ Transit service who earned $214,891 in overtime for a total salary of $292,080. Their job isn’t easy, repairing and maintaining NJ Transits aging fleet of railcars which includes the now 45-year-old Arrow cars and the 40-year-old Comet II’s.

Two structures supervisors were the second and third highest overtime earners, one with 15 years at NJ Transit, who earned $180,841 in overtime for a total 2023 salary of $292,528, and the other with 17 years of service who made $161,020 in overtime, for a total salary of $264,555, agency records show.

Rounding out the top five of overtime earners are a catenary mechanic with five years at NJ Transit, who made $160,183 in overtime last year for a total salary of $239,507, and an electrician who has worked for the agency since 2003, who made $155,524 in overtime for a total 2023 salary of $236,402.

Last year was busy for those wire and structure experts. The most severe incident they had to repair happened in early December. A contractors’ work train equipment knocked down steel support structures on the Morris & Essex lines tracks in Parsippany, taking the overhead wires down with it. That suspended service for several days while infrastructure was rebuilt.

Other overhead wire problems on July 5 stranded 350 passengers who were rescued from trains by Maplewood police and South Orange firefighters.

Retirements are another overtime factor. Decisions on whether to use overtime or hire a new employee is a fiscal balancing act to determine which is more cost effective.

Of 1,194 employee separations last year, 340 were retirements, Chartier said. Of the retirements, 275 were union employees and eligible for overtime. Retirements, along with other separations, impact overtime only when the vacancies aren’t promptly filled, he said.

“While use of overtime reduces fringe benefit costs, NJ Transit strives to control use of overtime through various means such as hiring to minimize vacancies,” Chartier said.

Overtime also is subject to an approval, tracking and review process and NJ Transit has a four point Overtime Control Strategy, he said.

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Larry Higgs may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry

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