Who are the highest paid city employees in SLO County?

July 14, 2026

By Karen Velie

While all San Luis Obispo County residents are being asked to vote in November for a half-sent sales tax increase for transportation improvements, large raises for some administrative and public safety employees are taking a bigger bite out of city budgets.

While the bulk of city employees receive pay increases of approximately 3% per year, over the past five years increases have been much higher for some administrators such as a 38% increase in salary and benefits for the city manager of Grover Beach and a similar increase in pay for the Morro Bay chief of police position.

While San Luis Obispo continues to have the highest paid city employees in the county, because of large pension debt payments, their numbers were abnormally high in 2024.

CalCoastNews evaluated earnings information from Transparent California, a public pay and pension database, to determine the four top-paid employees in each of the seven cities in SLO County. The totals include salary, benefits and pro-rated pension funds.

Compensation information is from 2024,  the last time the seven cities filed with Transparent California.

Four highest paid employees from each of the seven cities in SLO County

City                      Pay/Benefits    Title                        Name