Summary
PICA’s Quarterly Overtime Update for the second quarter of FY2018 showed City of Philadelphia overtime costs totaled $93 million in the first half of FY2018, or 68.4 percent of the City’s annual overtime allocation. While the City has achieved recent reductions in overtime spending, City departments spent $1.5 million more on overtime than in the first half of FY2017. Thus, departments will need to closely manage overtime in the third and fourth quarter if the City is to continue to reduce overtime costs, and avoid exceeding its budget for wages in FY2018. Our report also found: • Seven key departments spent $85.7 million on overtime through the second quarter—92.5 percent of total overtime spending. • 17 departments spent more than 50 percent of their FY2018 overtime through the second quarter. Of these 17 departments, seven spent over 90 percent of their overtime allocations for the full year. • Second quarter overtime costs were $45.7 million, almost $8 million higher than in the second quarter of FY2017, placing second quarter overtime costs above a recent downward trend in overtime spending beginning in FY2016. While the City has shown recent progress in reducing overall overtime costs, the second quarter spike in spending puts the City on pace to exceed its overtime allocation in FY2018. As in previous years, excessive overtime spending may again threaten the City’s budget for total wages.