In 2023, Worcester experienced growth in both its city employee count and total payroll, as reported by MassLive. The city’s workforce increased to 8,016 employees from more than 7,900 in the previous year. Correspondingly, the total earnings of city employees rose to $519 million in 2023, a 9.3% increase from 2022, when the sum of city employees’ salaries was $487 million.
Out of 8,016 city employees, 1,540 received salaries in the six-figure range last year, accounting for about 19% of the workforce. Of these, 1,476 employees earned between $100,000 and $200,000, while 69 employees took home salaries ranging from $200,000 up to the highest salary of nearly $314,000.
Eric Batista, the City Manager, emerged as the highest-paid employee in 2023 with a gross salary of $313,723. This represented a substantial increase of $112,264 or 55.7% from his 2022 earnings, when he was the 64th highest-paid employee. Batista stepped into the role of acting city manager in June 2022 following the departure of Edward Augustus Jr., who had served for eight years, and was officially sworn into the position in January 2023.
Following Batista, the second-highest earner was Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Rachel Monárrez, who made $294,402 in 2023, more than doubling her previous year’s salary of $136,100, although she only served part of 2022. Her predecessor, Maureen Binienda, earned $170,853 in part of the same year.
Monárrez was appointed superintendent by the Worcester School Committee on April 28, 2022. Prior to her Worcester appointment, she was the deputy superintendent of the San Bernardino City Unified School District and had nearly two decades of experience as a classroom teacher and instructional leader in Southern California. She commenced her duties in Worcester on July 1, 2022.
