Waste Of The Day: Illinois Corrections Employees Exploit Vacation-Overtime Loophole

Authored by Jeremy Portnoy via RealClearInvestigations,

Topline: Overtime pay is meant for employees working more than eight hours per day, but the Illinois Department of Corrections has found a way to circumvent that rule. Employees are using paid time off to stay home during work hours and then coming in later the same day to work overtime, according to a report from the state auditor released on Sept. 23. 

Key facts: Employees are more than happy to gain extra overtime hours and earn 1.5 times their regular salary, but the practice of “shift swapping” violates the Department of Corrections’ training manual, in the opinion of the state auditor. The department gets billed for overtime twice: first to pay an officer to cover for the employee on paid leave, and then again when the employee on leave returns later in the day. 

Auditors reviewed the 20 highest overtime earners from two of Illinois’ largest prisons. They found 150 times where an employee used an entire days’ worth of paid leave and also worked overtime the same day. 

The audit says that the Department of Corrections spent $151.7 million paying for nearly 3 million hours of overtime in 2024, but it’s unknown how much money individual employees earned in overtime. The audit does not specify, and the Illinois Comptroller did not separate base salary from overtime earnings in response to Open the Books’ open records request for employee compensation. 

Open the Books’ records do show that the highest-paid employee in the Corrections Department last year was Jermiagh Daly, who made $360,790. Another 107 people made more than $200,000. 

Search all federal, state and local salaries and vendor spending with the world’s largest government spending database at OpenTheBooks.com.  

Supporting quote: The Department of Corrections disagreed that shift swapping violates state policy because they are required to find volunteers for overtime hours before forcing any other employee to work overtime.  Otherwise, it would be a “violation of the collective bargaining agreement and would result in a higher cost to the State,” the department claimed in its response to the audit. 

Summary: Private companies can pay their employees however they like, but the government has a responsibility to field a workforce that is the most efficient for the taxpayers it serves. 

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com