State Controller John Chiang has updated his public employee compensation website with the latest wage and benefit information for California city and county employees.
The site — publicpay.org — offers maps, search functions, and custom report-building tools. It also allows users to download raw data for their own research.
"Making compensation of public employees transparent provides taxpayers with the ability to be more informed and active in local government decisions," Chiang said.
The update adds wage and benefit data for 637,435 positions, with more than $38.6 billion in wages paid in 2012.
It also includes a list of the top 10 highest paid city positions in 2012. They include the city manager of Buena Park, who topped the list with total wages of $545,394. No Santa Monica employees made the top 10 list.
Santa Monica had 2,776 employees for 91,040 residents, according to the website, for an average wage of $67,930. The city of Vernon had highest average with $98,332.
Santa Monica's total wages, which include retirement and health costs, for 2012 was $188,573,708.
Santa Monica ranked ninth in that category. Los Angeles was at the top with total wages of over $4.2 billion.