Since 2013, Oakland grew employee compensation by $411M. That’s $184M more than needed to keep pace with inflation. It far exceeds raises of other California cities, and precipitated a budget crisis. We have researched how between 2013 and 2023 the increase in compensation compares with similar cities in California and can see that their growth in compensation is not anywhere near what Oakland’s has been. While their compensation costs have grown they have had modest increases in the number of employees while Oakland’s employee count has decreased. The number of employees will decrease in further with the just approved budget and significantly more if money from the sale of the Coliseum does not come through including significant cuts in Police and Fire.
We encourage you to read the full report written in collaboration with the Oakland Report, which is published there.
Terrific report. Thanks for posting this.