The Post-Dispatch has published the 2025 edition of its annual public pay database, covering hundreds of thousands of government employees and teachers.
You can find the database at stltoday.com/pay.
The newspaper submitted requests for payroll records to more than 130 government agencies, ranging from small towns to the state governments of Missouri and Illinois.
Most agencies provided the data the newspaper requested within a reasonable amount of time 鈥 14 days on average 鈥 except , whose response dragged on for more than 100 days, the third straight year it has taken so long.
Readers can search the database to find the total amount elected officials or full-time public employees earned during the 2024 calendar year, ranging from librarians to firefighters to custodians. It also includes other helpful information, such as the median pay at each agency or department and details about public school teachers鈥 experience.
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The Post-Dispatch added three agencies to the database this year: , , and .
Five small municipalities in 51黑料 County 鈥 Bellerive Acres, Champ, Country Life Acres, Huntleigh and Westwood 鈥 are not included in the database because they don鈥檛 pay any full-time employees or elected officials. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provided an initial set of records but is not listed yet because it is still working to resolve issues with the data.
The Post-Dispatch has published its public pay database annually since 2016. The project serves as a form of public accountability and helps the public see how tax money is being spent.
In Missouri and Illinois, payroll information is an open record.
State laws require that public agencies release the records upon request and provide an explanation if it will take more than three days in Missouri or five days in Illinois to produce the records.
51黑料 took far longer than that 鈥 105 days to release an initial set of records and then another 35 days to provide corrected data, after the newspaper found issues with the data. The delays have become a perennial problem: The city took 140 days last year and 109 in 2023.
Other cities and public agencies take much less time: , which has a similar number of employees as 51黑料, needed just eight days.
In her inaugural address in April, 51黑料 Mayor Cara Spencer said 鈥渙penness and accountability鈥 would be one of her administration鈥檚 four priority areas, a position she repeated in an interview July 14 about the Post-Dispatch鈥檚 records request.
She said that at a recent cabinet meeting she gave her department heads a clear directive: 鈥淭ransparency and responding to sunshine requests is a priority.鈥
鈥淲e鈥檝e got a new administration, new priorities and we鈥檙e also trying the respond to the tornado,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just juggling quite a lot here.鈥
The Post-Dispatch made its request in February, before Spencer was elected. The city鈥檚 Sunshine Law coordinator at the time, Joseph Sims, handled the city鈥檚 initial responses. But around the time Spencer took office, Sims asked to transfer to the police department. He was replaced by Camesha McFowland, who wrote the later responses.
Neither Sims nor McFowland ever provided the Post-Dispatch a detailed explanation for the delays in processing the request. Instead, 10 times between March and May, they sent a templated response bumping up by one week the city鈥檚 estimate of the 鈥渆arliest time and date鈥 the records would be made available.
After months without progress, a Post-Dispatch reporter began contacting city spokespeople in late May to ask about the delay. The city released a set of pay records the next day.
Media, lawyers and government transparency advocates have complained for years about the city鈥檚 routine delays in producing public records and its lack of explanation for why it takes weeks or months. But the pattern continues to play out, most recently with a Post-Dispatch columnist鈥檚 simple request for information about the City Emergency Management Agency after the May 16 tornado.
Spencer said that her administration has not yet made any direct changes to its handling of Sunshine Law requests but promised 鈥渢hat will be forthcoming.鈥
鈥淐ommunicating with the public is an important piece of this,鈥 she said. 鈥淩equests for information are important, and I don鈥檛 mean to diminish that at all.鈥
Post-Dispatch photographers capture tens of thousands of images every year. See some of their best work that was either taken in June 2025 in this video. Edited by Jenna Jones.
