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The City of Lawrence’s annual budget doubled from $261 million in 2020 to $520 million in 2025.
In the six years between 2020 and 2026, the city’s revenue will have increased 52% because of increases in utility fees and property tax valuations.1
In spite of this increase, the city has faced recurring budget deficits, and the city is now trying to identify $4.5 million in savings for its 2027 budget so it can operate a new fire station in northwest Lawrence.
The Coalition for Collaborative Governance researched the city’s budget to understand why its costs have outpaced its revenue, and one major reason is because its personnel expenses increased 40%, from $90 million to $126 million, in the last six years.2
The city is a service-based organization, so much of its budget, including more than 67% of the general fund, is allocated for staff.3
This includes sanitation, police and fire-medical employees — unionized staff members foundational to keeping our community running. It also includes the city’s administrators, planners, attorneys, engineers, street maintenance crews, and parks and recreation employees.
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Increases in personnel costs
Why have the city’s personnel costs increased 40% in the last six years?
More employees: The city currently has 931 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, which is 77 more than it had in 2020.4 On average, each FTE’s salary and benefits cost the city about $130,000 per year, so 77 additional employees could account for about $10 million in annual costs.
General wage adjustments: The city provides raises for its employees each year, called general wage adjustments. These raises have been between 0.5% and 3% each year for the past six years, and in 2026, city staff members received a 3% wage adjustment.5
Market-rate adjustments: In 2018, the city hired an outside consultant to compare city staff salaries with comparable jobs in 14 similar communities throughout Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. They found that 19% of our city’s non-union employees were paid below what the consultants identified as market rate, and they found that another 21% of these employees were paid at the low end of the market rate for their position.6 This study’s findings prompted the city to increase salaries for many employees in 2022 and 2023 to make staff salaries competitive.7
Union agreements: The city has salary agreements with the unions that represent fire-medical, police and sanitation employees. These employees receive an annual wage adjustment like the city’s non-union employees, and they also receive a “step compensation” each year for the first 10 years of their employment if they meet their job expectations. These combined increases mean that most union employees were able to expect salary increases of around 7.5% per year in 2024 and 2025.8
Salary increases
To better understand city staff salary changes, our coalition’s researchers analyzed the base salaries of the city’s 250 top-paid employees, which ranged from $96,000 to $278,000 in 2025.9 (These numbers do not include benefits, including health insurance and KPRS retirement contributions, so total employee compensation is greater.)
For comparison, the median household income for Lawrence taxpayers is currently $65,000.10 Note that this figure accounts for multi-earner households.
From 2020 to 2025, the top-paid city employee was the city manager, whose salary has increased 36% between 2020 and 2025. And he’s not alone.
The salaries of the 42 highest-paid, non-union employees who have been employed since 2020 (and haven’t changed positions) have increased an average of 37% during this same five-year period, for an average total increase of $36,000 per employee. For comparison, the city reports that incomes for Lawrence residents only increased 3% between 2018 and 2025.11
Summary of City of Lawrence non-union staff raises*
| Years | Non-union Staff | Size of staff raises |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-2025 | Top 42 continuously employed staff | Average 37% total increase over 5 years |
| 2022 & 2023 | More than 75% of top-paid staff | 6% to 20%, or more, each year |
| 2024 & 2025 | At least 70% of top-paid staff | 6% to 15%, or more, each year |
2022 and 2023: In 2022, the city made “market-rate” adjustments and gave 72 of its top-paid, non-union staff members 6% or greater raises, and half of those got double-digit raises. In 2023, most of the same staff members got comparable raises a second time.
2024 and 2025: By 2024, the city was done making these market-rate adjustments, but the top-paid staff continued to get substantial raises, even though the city commission approved much smaller wage adjustments for them and the city’s other employees.
• In 2024, the city commission approved a 2.5% raise for all employees, but 89 of the city’s top-paid, non-union employees received substantially greater raises of 6% to 13%, or even more.
• In 2025, the commission approved a 1% raise for all, but 75 of these top-paid employees received 6%-plus raises again.
To see the numbers for yourself, check out our spreadsheets.
All combined, the vast majority of the city’s 250 top-paid, union and non-union, employees received raises of 6% or more each of the last two years, and many received similar increases the previous two years, also.
The Federal Reserve aims to keep inflation at 2%, and it has been 3% these last two years.12 So these city staff salary increases have outpaced inflation by 2 times or more. During these same years, the city has faced significant budget deficits and addressed them by cutting departmental budgets and implementing fees at our community’s recreation facilities.
Comparisons with other Kansas cities
To provide up-to-date comparisons of city staff salaries, we analyzed Lawrence’s 2025 payroll costs compared to the other eight largest cities in Kansas. (Kansas City, Kansas is not included because its city government is merged with its county’s.)
In 2025, the City of Lawrence spent $815 on staff salaries for every person in our city, which is more than any of the other eight largest Kansas cities.13 This number is more striking when you compare these cities’ 2024 median household incomes, which are more than $100,000 for all of the Johnson County cities, and are $65,000 and less for Lawrence and all the other Kansas communities.14
| City | 2024 median household income | City payroll costs per capita | 2024 population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olathe | $114,009 | $694 | 149,035 |
| Shawnee | $109,940 | $511 | 69,724 |
| Overland Park | $104,834 | $464 | 202,893 |
| Lenexa | $103,239 | $772 | 59,427 |
| Lawrence | $65,009 | $815 | 97,271 |
| Wichita | $64,620 | $592 | 400,991 |
| Salina | $61,783 | $799 | 46,109 |
| Manhattan | $60,172 | $577 | 54,700 |
| Topeka | $56,956 | $711 | 125,467 |
Based on population size, Lawrence also has more employees, and more employees paid more than $100,000, than all but one of these other Kansas communities.15
These numbers indicate that some of the city’s recent budget challenges have been caused by hiring more employees, and more higher-paid employees, than comparable communities.
It is important to note that the city has hired the same consultants to conduct another compensation study this year, which will provide more information about current market rates for city staff.
The value of our city government
City staff members are appointed professionals who implement city commission policies, manage daily operations for city services, and oversee the use of our residents’ tax dollars. Our city government is vital to our community functioning well, and we all benefit greatly from its service.
It is important for our community to support city staff members and pay them an appropriate and competitive wage for their professions. This should allow the city to recruit and retain high-quality staff who deliver excellent service for our community.
In spite of the importance of the number and quality of city employees, our research suggests that the city has hired more employees and given larger raises than the city can sustainably afford, given its budget deficits.
The city has faced significant budget constraints driven by rapid payroll growth and rising personnel costs, and they began to address this last year by offering early retirement options and by not filling vacancies.
To further address these challenges, our coalition suggests that the city also explore other options, such as upper-level buyouts and wage freezes during deficits, which is a common practice in the private sector. We also hope that the city will balance these necessary fiscal corrections with little impact to community services.
We are grateful for our local government’s leadership, and we hope that the city uses our payroll research to inform future budget changes that are sustainable for our community.
About the writer
Holly Krebs (she/her) is the lead organizer of the Coalition for Collaborative Governance. She has a background in public policy and was a Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commissioner before changing career paths to become a health care practitioner. She is a longtime Lawrencian who operates Kinetikos Healing Collective and is the mother of three children.
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More from this columnist:
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence TimesHolly Krebs: City of Lawrence is increasing employee pay at unsustainable levels (Column)
Tom Harper/Contributed photo
Lawrence city budget coverage
Jacob Rice / Lawrence Times
More Community Voices:
- City of Lawrence, 2022 Budget Book, Revenue Summary (p. 195). City of Lawrence, 2026 Budget Book, Revenue Summary (p. 212).
- City of Lawrence, 2020 Budget Book, Expenditures History and Administrative Services Fund, (pp. 15 & 82) – personal services = $86.4M + $3.2M. City of Lawrence, 2026 Budget Book, Expenditures History and Administrative Services Fund, (pp. 35 & 82) – personnel services $114.2M + $11.6M.
- City of Lawrence, 2026 Budget Book, General Fund and Administrative Services Fund, (pp. 74 & 82) – personnel services = $71.7M + 66% of internal service charges.
- City of Lawrence, 2026 Budget Book, Personnel Summary (p. 30). City of Lawrence, 2020 Budget Book, Personnel Summary (p. 11).
- City of Lawrence, 2020-2026 Budget Books, Employee Compensation & Benefits.
- McGrath Human Resources Group, Classification & Compensation Study Executive Report For City of Lawrence, KS, Feb 2019, p. 8.
- City of Lawrence, 2022 and 2023 Budget Books, Employee Compensation & Benefits.
- City of Lawrence, Memorandum of Agreements – International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1596, 2022-2024 agreement and 2025-2027 agreement. Lawrence Police Officers Association, 2024-2026 agreement. Teamsters Local No. 696, 2024 amendment and 2025 agreement.
- Kansas Open Gov, City Payroll.
- U.S. Census Bureau, City of Lawrence, KS Quick Facts.
- City of Lawrence, City of Lawrence, KS – Municipal Government. Facebook. Jan 27, 2026.
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Is the U.S. in an Above-Target Inflation Regime?, Oct 2025. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Inflation Calculator.
- Kansas Open Gov, City Payroll. U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, Population estimates as of July 1, 2024.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Quick Facts, Median households income (in 2024 dollars), 2020-2024.
- 2025 Budget Books – Lenexa, p. 13. Manhattan, p. 25. Olathe, p. 308. Overland Park, p. 75. Salina, p. 9. Shawnee, Budgeted Personnel Position Summary. Topeka, p. 30. Wichita, p. 470.
