Wayne County jail guards are doubling and tripling their salaries through overtime, making them some of the cash-strapped county’s best-paid employees, a Detroit News investigation by Joel Kurth has found.
Last year, 112 of the county’s 380 corporals made more than $100,000 each. Forty made more than the $116,000 salary of their boss, Sheriff Benny Napoleon, for a job that requires special training but no college degree.
Besides doctors, the highest-paid county employee in the Metro area last year was a Wayne County Sheriff’s corporal who made $182,475, including $128,580 in overtime pay, according to salary records obtained by The News through the Freedom of Information Act.
That’s more than the salary of each county executive and Gov. Rick Snyder, who makes $159,300.
“This just gives me a stomachache. For a jail guard to make $180,000 is just ridiculous,” said Wayne County Commissioner Laura Cox, R-Livonia. “Obviously, an audit is in order.”
