(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Metra CEO Jim Derwinski has been approved to receive a nearly 4% pay raise, which will give the agency head a more than $11,000 pay bump to earn $325,825 annually.
The raise — which will include more than one year’s worth of back pay — was Derwinski’s third raise since 2020.
The decision came as Metra is expected to face a more than $270 million budget shortfall by 2026, when federal COVID relief funding runs out.
Ten of 11 Metra board members approved Derwinski’s pay hike, with director Stephen Palmer abstaining.
Derwinski’s new salary has him out-earning PACE Executive Director Melinda Metzger, though he’s still more than $50,000 behind Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) President Dorval Carter.
The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), which oversees Metra, the CTA and PACE, is expected to face a $730 million budget deficit in 2026.
Across all RTA services, ridership numbers reached over 320 million — just 60% of its 2019 levels.
Metra recently announced a new ticketing policy in which it did away with staffed ticket windows and instead required riders to purchase their tickets through the Ventra app. The first few weeks of the policy have been tumultuous, with the app crashing frequently and riders left without a way to buy their pass.
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