Overtime a burden in N.H. town

Andrew Nelson of The (Nashua, N.H.) Telegraph used city payroll records to look at overtime costs. While the city is laying off schoolteachers, it continues to pay $9 million a year in overtime and other extra pay to city employees. The investigation found that "nearly 50 city workers added at least 50 percent to their regular pay" and "more than 200 city workers added at least one-third to their pay. Only two of them work in schools, where administrators say they will cut more than 100 jobs in the next month to meet the mayor's budget targets." The bulk of the extra pay is in the traditional bastions of overtime: Nashua Fire Rescue ($3,098,945 in extra pay) and the police department ($2,514,591). But in percentage terms, the biggest winner was the solid waste department ($366,546, or 35 percent more than the base pay). A sortable database online includes every city employee and overtime pay.