Summary
City reports show that overtime costs for fiscal year 2018 totaled $179.4 million, $43.8 million more than was budgeted for the fiscal year, and $16.1 million more than FY2017. The FY2018 overtime spending total is the most the City has ever spent on overtime in a single fiscal year— over $9 million more than the City’s previous high total in FY2016. Thus, the City has once again exceeded its overtime allocation, for the eighth consecutive fiscal year. During the period from FY2011 to FY2018, the City spent $1.2 billion in overtime, while exceeding the total allocation for those years by more than $230 million. The report also found: • Seven key departments—Public Property, Free Library, Fire, Streets, Parks & Recreation, Police, and Prisons—spent $160.7 million on overtime, representing 90 percent of total overtime costs. • Twenty-five out of 38 City departments exceeded their overtime allocations. • While both staffing levels and leave usage have improved, overtime costs have risen. • Departments with high staffing rates and low leave usage stayed within their overtime allocations at a higher rate than City departments as a whole. FY2018 marks the third fiscal year for which PICA has closely monitored overtime costs for the City of Philadelphia. Whereas some progress has been made in identifying the drivers of excessive overtime spending, the fact that the City spent more than ever on overtime in FY2018 demonstrates the difficulty the City is encountering in managing overtime costs. PICA will continue to monitor the City’s progress as we track and report on overtime spending in FY2019.