All 39 departments / City of Chicago

Department of Family and Support Services

Headcount, pay, and awarded contracts for the Department of Family and Support Services, 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.

572

People on the payroll

Salaried and hourly combined

$100,248

Median salaried pay

Across 342 salaried staff

$102,712

Average salaried pay

Excludes hourly employees

$35,127,588

Total salaried payroll

Annual, before benefits

Hourly staff

230

Hourly employees

$4.73

Median hourly rate

$8.03

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 Department of Family and Support Services

  1. Foster Grandparent112
  2. Senior Companion59
  3. Hospitality Worker58
  4. Support Services Coord38
  5. Asst Community Living Specialist24
  6. Project Manager20
  7. Project Coord19
  8. Human Service Specialist19
  9. Administrative Assistant14
  10. Senior Director Of Family Support Programs14

Contracts awarded

The city's contracts dataset records 30,753 contract actions naming the Department of Family and Support Services, with award amounts totaling $15,050,376,784. 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 "DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND SUPPORT SERVICES".

  1. Erikson Institute$1,293,257,963
    DFSS-CCP-CS-EH: SSSApproved Aug 5, 2020
  2. Family Rescue$264,180,000
    DFSS-CDBG-GBV-MDTS:Approved Feb 25, 2026
  3. Board Of Education Of The City Of Chicago$156,226,513
    FY '12 - '14 HEAD START / COLLABORATIONApproved Dec 11, 2011
  4. Board Of Education Of The City Of Chicago$153,916,552
    HEAD START/COLLABORATIONApproved Nov 24, 2015
  5. Open Kitchens, Inc.$105,000,000
    DFSS-IDOA-SS-HDM:Approved Oct 23, 2025

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

Department of Family and Support Services FAQ

How many people work for the Department of Family and Support Services?
The City of Chicago's payroll extract lists 572 employees in the Department of Family and Support Services — 342 paid an annual salary and 230 paid an hourly rate. The city republishes the extract periodically, so the figure moves as people are hired and leave.
What does the Department of Family and Support Services pay?
Median pay for salaried employees in the Department of Family and Support Services is $100,248 a year, and the average is $102,712. Hourly employees are reported separately, at a median rate of $4.73 an hour. These are base pay figures — they do not include overtime, benefits, or pension costs.
What jobs does the Department of Family and Support Services employ?
The most common job titles in the Department of Family and Support Services are Foster Grandparent, Senior Companion, Hospitality Worker, Support Services Coord, Asst Community Living Specialist. The full list of titles in the department, with headcount for each, is ranked on this page.
How much has the Department of Family and Support Services awarded in contracts?
The city's contracts dataset records 30,753 contract actions naming the Department of Family and Support Services, totaling $15,050,376,784 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.