Comptroller: Overtime costs up 10.2% in state government despite growing work force

 ALBANY — Overtime costs for New York State agencies rose to over $1.3 billion last year, up 10.2% despite an increase in staffing levels, according to a report released Friday by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office.

The state’s workforce grew by 5,330 positions, or 3.7%, in 2024 to an average of 151,309 workers, not including those at the State and City university systems, the report said. Staffing remains not only below pre-pandemic levels but far lower than where it was 15 years ago when there were more than 177,000 workers, according to the report.

"New York needs to continue to attract and retain a range of diverse employees, and agencies need to ensure the use of overtime hours is justified and services are delivered safely and effectively for residents," DiNapoli said in a released statement.

The total state payroll in 2024 was $21 billion, of which 6.3% was overtime costs, according to the report.

Overtime hours increased in 2024 for the eighth consecutive year, with three agencies accounting for the lion’s share of the state’s overtime: the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) and the Office of Mental Health, according to the report’s findings. The agencies make up 23% of the workforce, but accounted for 66.7% of state agencies’ overtime hours and 64.5% of the total overtime earnings, the report said.

All three, however, had "greater-than-average" reductions in their workforce from 2015 to 2024, with Corrections seeing a 22.7% decrease, OPWDD a 5.7% decrease and Mental Health reduced by 3.5%, according to the report.

The state has been working to address staffing shortages and in 2023 launched the New York Hiring for Emergency Limited Placement Statewide, or HELPS program, which temporarily streamlined the hiring process, for example waiving the need for competitive Civil Service exams.

Hiring outpaced attrition in 2023 for the first time in over a decade with more than 17,504 new hires. From 2021 to 2023, attrition was largely attributed to people leaving rather than retirement, according to the report. The state implemented a hiring freeze from April 2020 through March 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The State’s workforce continues to rebound toward optimum levels through programs like the Governor’s 'You’re Hired' initiative and HELPS, continuing to waive Civil Service Examination fees and robust recruitment efforts in our public safety and mental hygiene sectors," Kassie White, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul said in an emailed statement.

The governor's office warned that actions by the federal government to cut and withhold funding could jeopardize the jobs of thousands of state workers and "undo the progress made in rebuilding the state’s workforce post-COVID, and only exacerbate the reliance of overtime to deliver critical support services and public safety initiatives."

Strike, staffing shortages

Staffing shortages, particularly within the Corrections Department, became a topic of budget discussions this year after 13,500 of the state’s correction officers went on a 22-day wildcat strike in February ignoring their own union.

In 2024, the average overtime hours per Corrections employee annually grew 26.3% to 325 hours, while the workforce overall declined by more than 1,000 employees, according to the comptroller’s report. Overtime increased by nearly 1.3 million hours in the department from 2023 to 2024.

The state budget approved in June aimed to address staffing shortages by changing the minimum hiring age for corrections officers from 21 to 18 years old, allowing the hiring of residents outside the state and authorizing the governor to close up to three state prisons as prison populations decline.

Auditors also found:

• Overtime hours overall have increased across all state agencies by 7.7 million hours from 2015 to 2024, as did pay rates, which contributed to the growth in overtime earnings. Overtime earnings grew $716 million in 2015 to $1.3 billion in 2024.
• Eleven agencies had increases in overtime in 2024 including "major rises" at the Department of Transportation, State University of New York, Division of State Police, Unified Court System, and Office of Children and Family Services. Additionally the Department of Labor and New York State Veterans’ Homes saw increases in overtime. 
• The Office for People with Developmental Disabilities saw a decrease of 652,900 overtime hours worked from 2023 to 2024. Overtime hours at the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance also declined by 25,300.