We ran every department's payroll data through CompensationAtlas this quarter, looking for raises that stood out from the normal cost-of-living bump. Three did — and none of them came with a title change.
The largest percentage increase belongs to a deputy commissioner whose rate jumped 8.2% with no title change. That kind of discretionary increase happens — but it's nearly impossible to spot in a raw payroll CSV unless you're comparing each employee against their own history.
Zoomed out, one department stood out at the aggregate level: average compensation growth for supervisory titles outpaced growth for frontline titles roughly four to one this quarter. That gap isn't necessarily improper — different roles move on different schedules — but it's exactly the kind of pattern worth being able to see.
The story isn't usually in any single number. It's in the gap between what a title suggests and what the record shows.
Two of the largest increases in total earnings weren't raises at all — they were overtime. Their official salary rate barely moved, but what they actually earned told a very different story, which is exactly the distinction CompensationAtlas is built to preserve.
Rather than looking at a single citywide average, we compared each employee's current quarter against their own trailing history, then aggregated by department to see where growth was concentrated. This method surfaces individual outliers that a department-wide average would smooth over completely.
A raise that significantly outpaces both inflation and typical step increases for that title, without an accompanying title change or promotion, is the pattern worth flagging — not every raise, and not every large number.
None of this requires a public records request — it's already public. The gap is between "published" and "usable." If you want to run this same comparison for your own department or council district, CompensationAtlas is free to start with.
Yes — it's the same public payroll record available through OpenDataPhilly, connected and made searchable.
Search by department name in CompensationAtlas to see current and historical compensation trends.
No — many large increases reflect legitimate promotions, reclassifications, or negotiated adjustments. The value is in being able to check, not in assuming the worst.
Yes — CompensationAtlas updates as new payroll data is published, so you can watch trends develop over time rather than checking once.
For the bigger picture, see our Government Transparency Guide.