From university presidents, to police officers, council members and football coaches — central Ohioans’ tax dollars are funding salaries for tens of thousands of state and local officials each year.
Between pandemic fallout, stubborn inflation and emerging affordability issues, every dollar earned matters. With that in mind, The Dispatch is launching a database of public payrolls so central Ohioans can keep a better eye on how their tax dollars are being spent.
The Dispatch submitted nearly 50 public records requests this year to organizations around central Ohio. While many have provided full payrolls, others have declined to provide the details taxpayers should see. We didn’t just ask for base pay. Our requests included overtime and other pay categories to give a full picture of public employee earnings.
After obtaining payroll records, The Dispatch used AI tools to help standardize and organize salary data to compile it in a user-friendly way for readers.
The database includes salaries of employees from agencies throughout the greater Columbus area, including Ohio State University, school districts, city government and more. The Dispatch will continue to add agencies to the database in the coming months.
Readers can scroll through 2025 employee salaries line by line or search for a specific public employee, position or department.
Keep an eye out for follow-up stories on these salary databases from Dispatch reporters. And if there’s a local agency you think we should add to the database, email reporter Max Filby with your idea.
Database note: Pay classified as “other” in the database can include holiday or vacation time, accrued time as well as miscellaneous pay or stipends, among other payments a public employee received in 2025.
Editors note: The Dispatch used AI tools to help organize and clean data for this salary database.
Dispatch investigative reporter Max Filby can be reached by email at mfilby@dispatch.com. Find him on X at the handle @MaxFilby or on Facebook at @ReporterMaxFilby.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How much do central Ohio’s public workers get paid? Look up your local leaders
Reporting by Max Filby, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Max Filby, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
