You already know that San Francisco has a $9.6 billion budget — "more than the budgets of 13 states and scores of countries around the world," the Chron notes. As reported earlier this year, the current budget sees increases for things like homeless services, transportation, increased library hours and more street cleaning. But underlying all that are the salaries of the people ostensibly performing those tasks — the street cleaners, the librarians, and everyone else. There are a lot of them! Let's take a look at the numbers.

  • $4.7 billion: The portion of SF's $9.6 billion budget devoted to city worker salaries and benefits
  • 30,626: The number of San Francisco city workers
  • 28: The number of SF residents there are to every one city worker
  • $108,774: The average annual SF city worker salary
  • $49,864: The average annual amount paid out per city worker in benefits, including "medical, dental and vision care and pension contributions"
  • $49,270: The salary of a "starting custodian" in SF
  • $44,798: The salary of a "starting junior typist" in SF (messages to City Hall officials to figure out exactly what that job would entail in 2016 were not returned at publication time)
  • $302,400: The salary of San Francisco's mayor
  • $311,194: The salary of San Francisco's fire chief
  • $316,732: The salary of San Francisco's chief of police
  • 4,500: The number of city worker job positions added during Mayor Ed Lee's tenure in office: "More than 300 people to the Police Department, 1,000 people to Muni and 1,100 people to the Department of Public Health. He’s added a few dozen apiece to the libraries and parks, and 13 to his own staff," the Chron reports
  • $1.2 billion: SF's budget in 1989, which according to usinflationcalculator.com equals $2,328,841,935.48 today

Update: SFMTA Transportation Planner Jerad Weiner writes in to offer this link for San Francisco's "Junior Clerk Typist" position, saying "We still type in 2016, I hope, or I'm way behind the times." I love that the job description includes "operating personal computer"!

All facts and figures: Billions of dollars flow to SF’s army of city workers, SF Chronicle, August 27, 2016.

Previously: Mayor Ups Proposed Budget To $9.6 Billion With Emphasis On Cleanliness, Homelessness Spending