How much does Caldwell pay city employees? Search our 2023 salary database
The city of Caldwell has 380 employees, whose salaries range from $4.90 an hour to over $155,000 annually.
The highest-paid employee at the city is Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram, who makes $157,081 annually. Ingram was hired last year from the Los Angeles Police Department. According to the website Transparent California, a state payroll database, Ingram made $143,000 at the LAPD in 2020.
The lowest-paid employees at the city are Caldwell recreation instructors who make a reported $1 an hour. Char Jackson, Caldwell spokesperson, said the instructors are paid per class based on the number of attendees. They are not paid an hourly wage, but the wage report system requires the city to put in a dollar amount.
Caldwell City Council Members make $4.90 an hour, or around $9,000 annually. They are paid less than part-time concessions employees and less than golf marshals, who make $9.50 an hour.
Mayor Jarom Wagoner makes $84,800 annually. Ingram’s second-in-command, Deputy Police Chief Shawn Sopoaga, makes $140,000 annually and is the second-highest-paid employee at the city.
Brent Orton, Caldwell Public Works director, makes $133,330 annually. He was hired in 2005.
Below is a searchable database showing the salaries of all city employees as of May 2023. Some searches will contain multiple pages of results.
The Idaho Statesman obtained this data through a public records request. Here’s how and why we did it:
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhy did we make this public?
Public employees work for taxpayers. Their salaries and wages are public information.
Idaho state employee pay has been publicly available on various websites, including the Idaho Statesman’s, for years. But there hasn’t always been an easy way to see what Treasure Valley’s local governments pay their employees.
We believe there is value in opening the curtains to show how governments spend taxpayer money. Not only can that sunshine help prevent and catch fraud, waste and abuse, it lets us see how wages differ between, and within, the many offices of our local governments.
Have an idea for another database? Think we should make more information public? Contact us at newsroom@idahostatesman.com or tips@idahostatesman.com.
How did we get the data?
We requested payroll data from local governments in May 2023.
What's the fine print?
First, this is a snapshot in time. Employees are hired, fired, promoted and given raises every day.
Second, employees aren’t all paid the same way. For the most part, you can figure out an employee’s annual pay by multiplying their hourly rate by 2,080. But that’s not always true. Some employees are part-time. Some, like council members, are paid a set amount. Others work more hours than normal and/or get overtime — emergency first responders especially — so their annual pay may be higher than their hourly rate would suggest.
Finally, the “hire date” isn’t necessarily the date that person first joined the ranks of public servants. Some employees are seasonal, temporary or took other jobs between stints working for the city or county.
This story was originally published June 13, 2023 at 9:37 AM.
