The city of Caldwell employed 424 people in 2025, paying nearly $32 million in wages to full-time staff.
The Canyon County hub of 76,610 people paid an average of $70,309 per employee in base salary last year, or $33.80 per hour, figuring a 2,080-hour year. The median was lower: $65,896 annually, or $31.20 per hour. (The median is the midpoint between the highest- and lowest-paid workers. The average was pulled up by higher-paid workers.)
These totals don’t include overtime for hourly employees. Last year, it wasn’t uncommon for first responders to rack up $10,000, $20,000 or even $30,000 in overtime pay, according to data obtained in a second public records request. Caldwell spent more than $1.8 million in overtime last year, with 85% — $1.56 million — directed toward police and fire. Of that, $855,101 went to police officers and $705,198 to firefighters.
A pair of fire captains earned more than $32,000 in overtime hours, including one who logged almost 738 hours to bolster his take-home from $77,625 to $99,825. A police corporal filed 715 overtime hours — good for $30,062 on top of the corporal’s $92,292 regular pay.
Forty-nine Caldwell employees made more than $100,000 in base pay during 2025, led by City Attorney Oscar Klaas ($192,608), Police Chief Rex Ingram ($185,432) and Fire Chief Bryan Daniels ($167,065). The lowest paid employees? Members of the City Council, who earn $11,731 per year — $5.64 per hour, based on a 2,080-hour standard year.
Search the pay of Caldwell’s full-time city employees in the Statesman’s database below. (If your device doesn’t display the search fields, click here.)
MORE Why did we make this public? Public employees work for taxpayers. Their salaries and wages are public information. Idaho state employee pay has been publicly available on various websites, including the Idaho Statesman’s, for years. But there hasn’t always been an easy way to see what Treasure Valley local governments pay their employees. We believe there is value in opening the curtains to show how governments spend taxpayer money. Not only can that sunshine help prevent and catch fraud, waste and abuse, it lets us see how wages differ between, and within, the many offices of our local governments. Have an idea for another database? Think we should make more information public? Contact us at newsroom@idahostatesman.com or tips@idahostatesman.com. How did we get the data? We requested payroll and overtime data from local governments in December 2025. First, this is a snapshot in time. Employees are hired, fired, promoted and given raises every day. Second, employees aren’t all paid the same way. For the most part, you can figure out an employee’s annual pay by multiplying their hourly rate by 2,080. But that’s not always true. Some employees are part-time. Some, like council members, are paid a set amount. Others, especially emergency first responders like firefighters and police officers, can work nontraditional hours and/or get overtime. Their annual pay may be higher — in some cases much higher — than their hourly rate would suggest. Finally, the “hire date” isn’t necessarily the date that person first joined the ranks of public servants. Some employees are seasonal, temporary or took other jobs between stints working for the city or county.…Read more by Mark Dee