Austin workers were paid more than $143 million in overtime last year, according to city payroll data obtained by KUT News.
The payouts are nothing new, but show the city has relied more and more on overtime spending over the last few years, particularly for police, fire and emergency medical services.
That spending could come under a harsher focus this year as the city vows to cut its spending after the failure of Proposition Q — and as it gears up to ask voters to OK bond funding to pay for services.
Emergency services make up the bulk of overtime spending
Five departments regularly round out the top payments by the city to its employees.
Police account for the lion's share of overtime — more than 580,000 hours of the 1.7 million overtime hours billed in 2025.
Austin spent nearly $53 million on police overtime last year, compared to just $22.6 million paid out to Austin's firefighters.
And, as in previous years, dozens of officers racked up millions in overtime, some doubling their take-home pay.
Seventy-eight police officers earned six figures in overtime in 2025. On average, those top-earners pulled in $133,778 in overtime payments by clocking in more than 1,300 overtime hours.
All told, eight of the top 10 city workers who earned the most overtime were Austin police officers, while the top two earners were Austin Energy supervisors.
Those top 10 earners all nearly doubled their base salaries and were collectively paid out more than $2 million in overtime last year.
Austin spent $95 million on overtime for fire, police and EMS in 2025.
Overtime for these departments was a sticking point in the city's last budget cycle. All three departments were asked to pare down overtime in the planned budget, before voters rejected Proposition Q. That failed measure would have leveraged a property tax increase for some increases to overtime spending, along with spending to address homelessness, parks and other programs.
Austin City Council members made $95 million in cuts to their budget in light of Prop Q's failure, but they did manage to set aside $3 million in overtime for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services.
City officials have kept Austin police overtime hours consistent over the last five years in light of a staffing shortage at APD. The department signed a five-year, $218 million labor deal with officers in late 2024, which gave officers across-the-board raises. That contract allows the city to revisit the agreement in light of Prop Q's failure, but city staff said that would not be necessary.
The city has relied increasingly on overtime over the past few years
Austin's general revenue budget, which funds all city services, has increased since 2021. Predictably, the city's expenses on overtime have gone up as well, but the percentage of money going to overtime has also crept up.
The city spent nearly 10% of its general revenue budget on overtime last year, compared to 7.6% of the budget in 2021, according to city data. That's a 65% jump in overtime during that timeframe.
The budget for overtime jumped 15% from 2024 to 2025.
It's unclear whether city staff will push to cut overtime budgets this year, as the city once again stares down the prospect of asking for more in property taxes to fund city services.
Council Member Ryan Alter proposed a plan last August to provide monthly updates on the city's overtime expenses, but he later withdrew that measure.
During a Jan. 5 meeting, Austin Police told the city's public safety commission it had already spent 27% of its overtime budget through November, which is in line with its expenses over the last few years.
