Supervising plumber Jakub Markowski turned a city job into a roughly $465,000 haul in New York City’s most recent fiscal year, putting him among the biggest earners on the municipal payroll. Public records show that more than $330,000 of that total came from overtime, not base pay. The eye-popping paycheck has drawn scrutiny from city watchdogs and the agencies that oversee building permits and payroll practices.
According to a payroll analysis by the Empire Center, Markowski added about $331,814 in overtime to his base salary, bringing his 2025 total to roughly $465,034. Watchdogs and local reporters say those figures jump off the city’s public payroll lists and have renewed calls for tighter oversight of how overtime is assigned and paid.
Overtime That Adds Up
Across city agencies, overtime costs for fiscal 2025 reached about $2.9 billion, with outside reviews finding the biggest overtime earners clustered in a handful of trades such as plumbers, steamfitters and corrections staff. Analysis by RealClearInvestigations and the payroll databases it cites shows how call-back guarantees, holiday premiums and other contract rules can stack on top of one another and significantly increase overtime pay for skilled workers. The city comptroller’s prevailing wage schedules can further boost effective hourly rates for that work, which helps explain how overtime totals can balloon for supervisors.
Private Work and Permits
The New York Times reported that Department of Buildings records link Markowski to private plumbing activity and that the Department of Buildings has opened a probe into his work practices. The city’s list of licensed master plumbers shows “SUPER PLUMBERS CORP” under Jakub Markowski at a Long Island City address, in a record maintained by the Department of Buildings. The Times also reported that Markowski did not respond to its requests for comment about his overtime and outside work.
What Officials and Residents Say
NYCHA has defended heavy overtime for trades staff as a necessary response to urgent plumbing and heating needs across its aging buildings, arguing that emergency calls do not keep business hours. Tenant leaders and residents, however, say that even with those payouts, basic repairs still drag on too long at many developments. The authority is in the middle of a multi-year transformation plan and has highlighted billions in recent capital spending aimed at modernizing heating, plumbing and building systems. Tenant advocates say pay snapshots like Markowski’s only heighten frustration when broken pipes and radiators are still slow to get fixed.
What Comes Next
The combination of a Department of Buildings review and heightened attention to public payroll records makes further audits and oversight checks likely, according to watchdog groups. Transparency tools such as SeeThroughNY and repeated payroll analyses by independent organizations have triggered past inquiries, and advocates are pushing for the same level of scrutiny for overtime controls inside agencies that run public housing. City lawmakers and oversight offices have previously leaned on those datasets to argue for policy changes after spikes in overtime at other departments.
For now, the case highlights a familiar tension in New York: a city that says it is stretched for capital dollars operating under pay and overtime rules that can generate very large checks for a small number of workers. Agencies say they are reviewing records and the Department of Buildings has opened a review, but what those inquiries will ultimately produce is still unclear.
