Nearly 60% of Olathe’s highest-paid employees work for one of two public safety agencies — fire or police.

That is the highest proportion among the six cities set to be included in the Kansas City Business Journal‘s Public Paychecks series.

As of January, Olathe had about 1,010 full-time-equivalent employees, making it the 30th-biggest public-sector employer in the Kansas City area. According to the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 141,290, making it the fourth-most populous city in Kansas and the fourth largest in the metro.

Olathe has about 7.1 FTE employees per 1,000 residents.

Check out the gallery below to see some of the highest-paid Olathe employees.

The top end of the city’s payroll includes about 50 workers whose earnings topped $124,000 during the most recent fiscal year.

The top earners include 17 fire department employees, 12 members of the police department and seven workers in the city’s infrastructure department. Combined, Olathe spent $7.42 million in cash-based compensation for the 50 highest-paid employees — roughly the top 5% of all city government workers — in 2021.

KEEP READING >> See the top 50 highest-paid Olathe employees in the Kansas City Business Journal.