The very best paid worker throughout the Central Ohio Transit Authority is, predictably, its president and CEO. The second-highest paid worker? A car upkeep employee who racked up almost $230,000 in time beyond regulation pay in 2025 alone.
That worker is Keith White, whose gross pay of $352,904 final 12 months is elevating eyebrows on social media. In keeping with payroll data published by The Columbus Dispatch, White constructed on his base wage of round $66,000 with time beyond regulation pay to the tune of $228,000, a $550 bonus, and $57,000 in miscellaneous pay like unused vacation and sick time.
What does greater than $200,000 in time beyond regulation seem like in observe? Zero days off, in keeping with a member of White’s union.
“He doesn’t take sick time. He doesn’t take trip time. He doesn’t take his private days. He actually works day-after-day,” explained Bobby Berryhill, monetary secretary for the Transport Staff Union of America Native 208, the union representing COTA’s transit staff.
Berryhill added that White, who’s labored for COTA for 18 years, hasn’t referred to as out of labor for any cause previously 10 years. On the finish of every 12 months, White is paid out for all of the accrued trip and sick time he didn’t take.
“He’s an unimaginable worker, unimaginable employee. He’s a fantastic useful resource for individuals below him,” Berryhill stated.
Overboard on time beyond regulation
Past White’s indefatigable work ethic, there are a number of key programs at play in COTA that made his six-figure time beyond regulation pay potential.
Via COTA’s contract with TWU Native 208, car upkeep staff like White can volunteer for time beyond regulation shifts and commerce shifts with different workers. COTA’s upkeep retailers function 24/7 to help its fleet of buses, that means time beyond regulation shifts can be found day-after-day and for each shift. Mixed with continual understaffing, there’s loads of room for a employee like White to step in and decide up the slack.
“Our members earn each penny they make,” Berryhill stated of COTA’s time beyond regulation system.
White isn’t alone in making huge bucks from time beyond regulation work. Six different car upkeep staff had been additionally amongst COTA’s prime 25 highest paid workers of 2025, every making a minimum of tens of hundreds of {dollars} by way of time beyond regulation. The remainder of the record is rounded out by executives and administrators, together with president and CEO Monica Téllez-Fowler. With a gross pay of $499,114, Téllez-Fowler’s pay topped White’s by just below $150,000.
‘Rent extra Keiths’: Social media responds
Throughout social media, customers had combined reactions to White greater than tripling his base wage by way of time beyond regulation alone.
Many commenters on Instagram applauded White for devoting a lot of his life to his work. “Personally I wish to thank Keith for [his] dedication to our meager public transit system,” one person wrote.
“What I’m studying is that COTA must hire extra Keiths,” commented one other, whereas criticizing the understaffing that made his time beyond regulation potential. “Nobody ought to should work almost day-after-day with out time without work. [America] would possibly run on Dunkin or no matter, however Columbus clearly runs on Keith.”
However others had been extra skeptical of White’s success, together with one user on X who called attention to a similar story out of New York City. A plumber supervisor for the town’s public housing company named Jakub Markowski earned $465,000 in 2025, together with earnings from 2,560 hours of time beyond regulation, amounting to a mean of almost 50 hours of time beyond regulation each week. That put Markowski’s earnings above these of New York Metropolis officers just like the police commissioner, the hearth commissioner, and even the mayor.
Markowski was operating two non-public plumbing companies along with his job with the town, elevating considerations that he’d violated plumbing security laws and prompting investigations by each the town’s Division of Buildings and The New York Times.
However different commenters say that White’s state of affairs isn’t akin to Markowski’s. He’s not pulling one over on COTA, however benefiting from a damaged system, they are saying: “It’s not Keith’s fault. It’s COTA’s weak administration and lack of planning,” one commenter wrote.
“If there’s want for a technician you don’t make one work time beyond regulation for years, you rent one other one,” they continued. “That will have definitely helped them, and the fee would have been a lot lower than $300,000.”
However fixing COTA’s understaffing disaster isn’t so simple as hiring extra technicians, as spokesperson Jeff Pullin instructed The Columbus Dispatch. Given the extremely technical nature of the function, bringing on extra upkeep staff requires an “on-the-job coaching course of,” he defined.
“That signifies that your skilled technicians must be pulled off of their work to shift their focus from servicing the fleet to coaching new techs,” So, you’re going to have fewer skilled technicians engaged on buses, and that’s going to trigger extra time beyond regulation.”
