Only five Multnomah County employees managed to cross the $300,000 mark in total pay in 2025, but they managed it in style, public payroll records show. Those oversized checks were clustered in the county Health Department and the Sheriff’s Office, where heavy overtime and other payouts helped drive up overall personnel costs as the county’s payroll tab continued to climb.
Who Made More Than $300,000
According to The Oregonian/OregonLive, the short list of county workers topping $300,000 in 2025 includes Health Department leader Amy Henninger, whose total pay reached $334,110, and corrections sergeant William Maxwell, who brought in $317,612. Rounding out the group are Brandon Pedro, Richard Bruno and Jenny Madkour, each with total compensation north of $300,000 for the year. Those totals roll together base wages, overtime and other payouts that show up in the county’s payroll records.
Budget Backdrop
All of this lands against a tight budget backdrop. Multnomah County’s adopted budget for fiscal year 2026 clocks in at about $4.0 billion, according to Multnomah County's FY 2026 adopted budget. County documents and dashboards outline staffing strains and program tradeoffs that officials say weigh heavily in their debates over overtime use and broader personnel decisions.
Overtime Drove the Biggest Checks
Overtime was the real accelerant. Countywide, overtime payouts totaled roughly $26.9 million in 2025, and about $19.3 million of that came out of the Sheriff’s Office, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. Individual corrections staffers pulled in eye-catching amounts. Maxwell received about $132,071 in overtime and Pedro nearly $142,000, figures that helped push both of their annual totals past the $300,000 mark. Overall payroll grew by about 9% from 2024 to 2025, and the average pay per employee landed at roughly $84,608, according to the same review of county pay data.
Union Deal and Pay Bumps
On top of last year’s pay, new raises are already baked in. AFSCME Local 88 said members ratified a contract that gives workers either a 2.4% increase or a $1-per-hour boost, retroactive to July 2025, along with a guaranteed 3.5% cost-of-living adjustment on July 1, 2026, and a $21 minimum wage for covered county employees, according to the union’s announcement. Local union leaders have described the gains as modest but meaningful and have pressed county officials to pair pay hikes with real movement on workload and staffing concerns.
What to Watch Next
How the county reins in overtime and adjusts staffing will be a central storyline as those raises phase in and budget pressures linger. Local reporting has highlighted potential position cuts and hard tradeoffs as Multnomah County confronts what it has described as its largest recent spending gap, and county budget materials point to resources being shifted around to protect core services, according to NW Labor Press. Expect county board debates and union scrutiny to zero in on whether overtime controls, staffing changes or other belt-tightening moves end up carrying the load in keeping personnel costs in check while maintaining service levels.
