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All 39 departments / City of Chicago

Chicago Department of Transportation

Headcount, pay, and awarded contracts for the Chicago Department of Transportation, computed live from the City of Chicago's open data. Salaried and hourly employees are reported separately, because the city records only one of the two pay fields for each person.

1,282

People on the payroll

Salaried and hourly combined

$122,520

Median salaried pay

Across 397 salaried staff

$118,482

Average salaried pay

Excludes hourly employees

$47,037,479

Total salaried payroll

Annual, before benefits

Hourly staff

885

Hourly employees

$53.00

Median hourly rate

$55.13

Average hourly rate

Hourly rates are not annualized here. Actual annual earnings depend on hours worked and overtime, neither of which the payroll extract publishes.

Most common job titles in the Chicago Department of Transportation

  1. Concrete Laborer153
  2. Asphalt Laborer110
  3. Pool Motor Truck Driver95
  4. Motor Truck Driver60
  5. Hoisting Engineer57
  6. Lineman42
  7. Laborer42
  8. Bridge Operator41
  9. Cement Finisher38
  10. Street Light Repair Worker35

Contracts awarded

The city's contracts dataset records 21,199 contract actions naming the Chicago Department of Transportation, with award amounts totaling $19,795,813,582. Award amounts can be negative when a contract is revised downward or funds are de-obligated, so the total is a net figure rather than a spending total. Departments are named slightly differently in the contracts and payroll datasets, so this covers contracts filed under the exact name "CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION".

  1. F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates, Llc$444,347,400
    1269715: STATE/LAKE LOOP ELEVATED STATIONApproved Jan 15, 2025
  2. Ameresco, Inc.$150,000,000
    LED Street LightsApproved Jun 21, 2017
  3. Granite Construction Company.$137,618,565
    1269692A: LAKE ST. BASCULE BRIDGE OVER THE SOUTH BRANCH OF THE CHICAGO RIVERApproved Mar 27, 2025
  4. F.H. Paschen S.N. Nielsen & Associates, Llc$135,063,946
    1316729: 92nd Street Bascule Bridge of the Calumet River RehabilitationApproved Aug 7, 2026
  5. Ogden Const & Reliable Asphalt$130,220,150
    ASPHALT PRIMERS, HOT MIX ASPHALT, HIGH-PERFORMANCE COLD PATCH, HOT-POUR JOINT SEALER AND COLORED ASPHALT SURFACE TREATMENTApproved Mar 11, 2008

Sources

Pay figures are base pay only — no overtime, benefits, or pension costs. Medians are the middle record of the ordered list, computed over employees with that pay field filled in.

Related pages

Chicago Public LibraryDepartment of Fleet and Facility ManagementOffice of Emergency Management and CommunicationsDepartment of Family and Support ServicesChicago Department of Public HealthDepartment of FinanceAll City of Chicago salariesSearch every employee by name or titleCity job titlesPay ranges for each titleCity vendorsWho the city buys from

Chicago Department of Transportation FAQ

How many people work for the Chicago Department of Transportation?
The City of Chicago's payroll extract lists 1,282 employees in the Chicago Department of Transportation — 397 paid an annual salary and 885 paid an hourly rate. The city republishes the extract periodically, so the figure moves as people are hired and leave.
What does the Chicago Department of Transportation pay?
Median pay for salaried employees in the Chicago Department of Transportation is $122,520 a year, and the average is $118,482. Hourly employees are reported separately, at a median rate of $53.00 an hour. These are base pay figures — they do not include overtime, benefits, or pension costs.
What jobs does the Chicago Department of Transportation employ?
The most common job titles in the Chicago Department of Transportation are Concrete Laborer, Asphalt Laborer, Pool Motor Truck Driver, Motor Truck Driver, Hoisting Engineer. The full list of titles in the department, with headcount for each, is ranked on this page.
How much has the Chicago Department of Transportation awarded in contracts?
The city's contracts dataset records 21,199 contract actions naming the Chicago Department of Transportation, totaling $19,795,813,582 in award amounts. That total is a net figure: revisions and de-obligations are recorded as negative award amounts, so it is not the same as total spending.