The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has broken its record on overtime spending.
In 2023, the MTA spent $1.42 billion on overtime, surpassing a 2018 record that led to investigations, convictions and promises to reign in overtime spending. Since 2018, the amount spent on overtime dipped, but expenses have continued to tick up in the past couple of years.
Janno Lieber, the MTA’s chairman and CEO, said at a board meeting last week that staffing issues played a key role in spending.
“All over the country, transit is having a personnel hiring challenge,” he said. “We’re doing a little better than the rest of the world, but it’s still an issue. Overtime is driven by vacancies, where you have to use existing people because you don’t have enough people for a job. But we’re paying very, very close attention to it.”
According to MTA financial documents, the agency currently has 3,182 unfilled positions. As of last month, the MTA employs 70,556 people — an increase compared to February 2022.
Lieber also claimed the opening of a new Long Island Rail Road terminal at Grand Central Madison in January 2023 had further spread thin an already strained workforce struggling with staffing.
“Running an extra terminal the size of Grand Central Madison has challenged staffing fully and maintaining full staff to do all of our operations,” Lieber said.
However, union leaders told Newsday that spending funds on overtime was often a necessary step for projects to be completed on time and on budget — especially among the current staffing issues facing the MTA.
