NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- New York City has a new highest-paid employee, taking home a paycheck of over $500,000, although in an odd way that reportedly involves hundreds of vacation days.
NYCHA General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Vito Mustaciuolo is tabbed as collecting more fiscal pay than anyone else in the 2021 fiscal year, at $515,000, according to publicly available data.
He made more than the mayor and governor combined under an arrangement that let him cash in more vacation days than is usually allowed, a report by The City said.
Mustaciuolo was brought on to serve as GM in 2018 by Mayor Bill de Blasio, moving over from the top of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. That department allowed employees to cash in 261 unused vacation days, while NYCHA would only transfer 54, according to the report.
But Mustaciuolo took the NYCHA job on the condition that he could get paid out for all of his unused vacation days he had — which wad a massive 662 days, according to The City.
A NYCHA spokesperson confirmed the situation to the outlet, adding that their share of his payout was to be reimbursed by City Hall.
“NYCHA’s Chief Operating Officer Vito Mustaciuolo has nearly 40 years of dedicated service to New York City,” the spokesperson told The City. “Over four decades, he rarely took time off and when he was recruited to work at NYCHA, it was agreed that he would be compensated for this time.”
Mustaciulo’s pay is almost exactly split down the middle — $258,000 salary, and $257,000 in the paid time off.
No. 2 on the top paid list is also a NYCHA name — Chairperson Gregory Russ, who made over $414,000, according to the data.
And the Empire Center for Public Policy noted that some NYCHA plumbers and other workers raked in six-figure pay this year.
That includes two NYCHA plumbers and an electrician who each collected over $200,000 in overtime during the fiscal year. One plumber brought in over $356,000 overall, the Empire Center said, good for No. 9 citywide.
The Empire Center reported that those three workers were among 38 city employees to be paid over $300,000, while over 3,300 people on the city payroll made over $200,000.