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Last updated: April 2026
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Last updated: April 2026
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Florida law says every government salary is public record. This database covers elected and appointed officials only — the 41 people chosen or named to govern Escambia County and the City of Pensacola, from city council members to the sheriff. For the full employee roster, use the database links below.
By The Flightline Staff · April 2026 · Part of the Let the Sunshine In
Sources: FL Office of Economic & Demographic Research, Salaries of Elected County Constitutional Officers and School District Officials for Fiscal Year 2025-26 (EDR finsal25.pdf, Oct. 2025) · FL General Appropriations Act Ch. 2025-198, s.8 (State Attorneys, Public Defenders, Judges) · U.S. BLS OEWS Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent MSA, May 2024 · U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2024 · ECPS/EEA salary agreement, Board vote March 18, 2025 (WEAR-TV, WKRG) · City of Pensacola Ordinance (mayor salary), July 28, 2022 · City Charter amendment (council salary formula), effective after 2024 election (WUWF, Nov. 2025)
| Position | Salary | Yr |
|---|---|---|
| City of Pensacola | ||
| Mayor | $134,000 | FY2025-26 |
| City Council member (×9) | $38,204 | FY2025-26 |
| Escambia County — FL EDR FY2025-26 · Ch. 145 F.S. | ||
| Sheriff's Office | $251,114 | FY2025-26 |
| Tax Collector | $210,938 | FY2025-26 |
| School Superintendent | $210,938 | FY2025-26 |
| Clerk of Circuit Court | $182,644 | FY2025-26 |
| Property Appraiser | $182,644 | FY2025-26 |
| Supervisor of Elections | $182,644 | FY2025-26 |
| County Commissioner (×5) | $104,696 | FY2025-26 |
| Boards & Authorities | ||
| School Board member (×5) | $50,299 | FY2025-26 |
| ECUA Board member (×5) | $50,299 | FY2025-26 |
| State of Florida · FL Appropriations Act, eff. July 1, 2025 | ||
| State Attorney (1st Circuit) | $223,318 | FY2025-26 |
| Public Defender (1st Circuit) | $223,318 | FY2025-26 |
| Circuit Court Judge | $200,836 | FY2025-26 |
| County Court Judge | $174,000 | FY2025-26 |
| State Senator (District 1) | $29,697 | FY2025-26 |
| State Representative (×2) | $29,697 | FY2025-26 |
| ECSD — teacher salaries · EEA/ECPS agreement | ||
| Min. starting teacher | $48,300 | FY2024-25 |
| School Board member (×5) | $50,299 | FY2025-26 |
| BLS OEWS · Pensacola MSA · May 2024 · mean annual | ||
| Registered nurse | $88,730 | May 2024 |
| Police & sheriff officer (mean) | $66,470 | May 2024 |
| Elementary teacher (mean) | $58,460 | May 2024 |
| Firefighter (mean) | $56,180 | May 2024 |
| All workers — mean hourly | $27.13/hr | May 2024 |
The room fills up. Commissioners take their seats, the gavel drops, and decisions get made — on your tax dollars, your roads, your schools, your water. Most people in those chairs earn far less than you probably think. Some earn more than most Pensacolans ever will. And for years, nobody put it all in one place.
Florida has one of the country's strongest government transparency laws. Salaries of government employees are public record at every level — county, municipal, state, school board, utility authority. That's the law. What the law doesn't do is make those numbers easy to find, easy to understand, or easy to compare.
Start with what the average Pensacolian earns. The median household income in Pensacola was $74,212 in 2024, per the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Across Escambia County as a whole — including communities north of downtown — the median was $67,500. The metro area's average hourly wage was $27.13 in May 2024, compared to a national average of $32.66 per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That gap — roughly $11,000 per year — is the backdrop for every public salary conversation in this county.
Now look at what the county's elected and appointed leadership earns. The county administrator is appointed, not elected, and their salary is set by contract rather than state formula — the position is not included in the EDR schedule. The sheriff earns $251,114 in FY2025-26 under the Florida EDR formula. The property appraiser earns $182,644. The supervisor of elections, $182,644. County commissioners earn $104,696 each. Those salaries don't come from local negotiation — they come from Tallahassee, set by a population-based formula in Florida Statutes Chapter 145 that the Legislature has used since the 1970s.
The mayor's office is a separate story. City Council voted in July 2022 to raise the mayor's salary from $100,000 to $134,000 — a position that had been frozen since 2010 through a decade of inflation, population growth, and rising expectations. Mayor D.C. Reeves currently earns that figure. City Council members earned $13,998 for years, until a 2024 charter amendment tied their pay to the same formula used for school board members. For FY2025-26, the council salary is $38,204 — a 44 percent increase, confirmed by a November 2025 report from Rick's Blog citing the charter formula.
The mayor's office itself put the front-line problem plainly. A salary study commissioned before the 2024 pay reform found the city ranked in the 21st percentile among municipalities in the Southeast. Mayor Reeves said it directly at the time: "If you were to compare under that logic of 100 municipalities, 79 pay better than we do." The reform cost more than $5 million, phased in over three years, with 75 percent of the investment going to employees earning less than $60,000 per year.
That's the piece the headline numbers miss. The sheriff earns $251,114 — that's a management salary for running a law enforcement agency with hundreds of deputies. County commissioners earn $104,696 for a part-time elected position. Those figures are set by state formula and not negotiable at the local level. But the front-line workers — corrections officers, enforcement officers, maintenance crews, librarians — are on a completely different pay schedule. The county's own official wage database at myescambia.com shows the range; the BLS Pensacola MSA data puts the broader context around it. Police and sheriff patrol officers in the metro averaged $66,470 annually in May 2024. Firefighters averaged $56,180. Elementary teachers averaged $58,460 — higher than the minimum starting salary of $48,300, reflecting years of experience, but still below what comparable metro areas pay.
The BLS OEWS data for the Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent MSA shows the local economy paying less than the national average across almost every occupation. The mean hourly wage for all workers here was $27.13 in May 2024, compared to $32.66 nationally — a gap of roughly $11,400 per year. That puts pressure on every government employer in the county competing against private-sector wages for the same talent pool.
Teachers in Escambia start at $48,300 per the 2024-25 agreement ratified by the school board in March 2025. The mean annual salary for elementary school teachers in the metro was $58,460 according to BLS May 2024 — meaning most experienced teachers earn above the minimum, but the floor is low enough that entry-level educators remain below the county median household income. For a workforce of more than 7,000 district employees, that starting point matters for recruiting.
Florida's Sunshine Law guarantees the right to ask. Escambia County has a searchable salary database at myescambia.com. The state maintains its own at salaries.myflorida.com. But the state database doesn't include municipal or county employees — it covers state agency employees only. Local governments post their own data in their own formats, with their own levels of accessibility. Some post it prominently. Others require a formal public records request.
Board members present a particular opacity problem. The ECUA board, the school board, the airport authority, the Community Redevelopment Authority — dozens of appointed and elected officials touching public money sit on bodies whose compensation is rarely examined collectively. Most board pay is modest. Some is nominal. But the point isn't the amount: it's the principle. Anyone drawing public funds for public duties should be findable in one search, not scattered across a dozen agency websites in different fiscal year formats.
If Pensacola wants qualified candidates for mayor — people with executive experience, the ability to turn down private-sector offers — $134,000 for the job of running a city with an airport, a port, a maritime park, 800 employees, and roughly $500 million in annual budget authority is arguably still not enough. The Jacksonville chief administrative officer recently earned more than $330,000. That's a different scale, but it illustrates the range of what Florida cities pay for comparable executive function.
The same logic applies at every level. Paying a county sheriff $251,114 to run a law enforcement agency with hundreds of deputies is defensible. Paying elected commissioners $104,696 for what is formally a part-time position is a separate policy question worth asking. Florida's transparency infrastructure is better than most states. What it doesn't provide is context, comparison, or a single front door. The databases linked below are that front door. The data has always been public. It just hasn't been assembled this way before.
Our index above covers named elected officials. For the full workforce — all county employees, city employees, teachers — use these official sources. All are free, searchable by name.
