How much do city workers make in this Boise suburb? Search our Star employee database
What kinds of jobs does the city of Star have, and how much do its employees earn?
The Idaho Statesman has compiled a searchable database of Star workers’ wages, including pay rates for the Mayor’s Office, City Clerk’s Office, and Parks & Recreation.
Star is tucked in the northwest corner of Ada County, with a population of 19,920, according to 2024 data from the Community Planning Association of Southwest Idaho.
There are 108 employees on the city’s payroll, according to data provided by the City Clerk’s Office on Nov. 19, though many of those are seasonal workers like camp counselors, referees, and some workers in the Buildings and Grounds Department. For this database, the Statesman included employees who work part- or full-time and excluded seasonal positions.
Among the city’s 34 part- and full-time employees, pay ranges from $12 an hour for assistants in the sports and recreation departments to $109,200 a year for the city planner, Shawn Nickel, the highest-paid employee.
Hourly staff members earn an average of $23.56 an hour, while salaried employees earn $69,000 a year on average.
The city has four elected officials, including Mayor Trevor Chadwick, who earns $85,000 a year, and City Council Members David Hershey, Kevin Nielsen, and Jennifer Salmonsen, who each earn $14,400 a year in their part-time positions.
Star contracts with the Ada County Sheriff’s Office for its police work. Star police wages can be found in the Ada County payroll database.
Search the pay of Star city employees in the Statesman’s database here:
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.
