He’s the Port Authority’s undisputed overtime king.
PAPD Sgt. Edwin Rivera, 43, is the biggest OT earner in the entire agency — set to earn almost triple his already generous $100,000-plus salary this year by working hundreds of hours in overtime, officials said.
Rivera — a 16-year veteran who’s consistently among the PA’s top OT earners — last year raked in a total of $273,946 thanks to $166,035 in overtime on top of his base pay of $107,911.
The Staten Island resident gets paid about $51.88 an hour typically to supervise cops who patrol the PATH line. But that rate jumps to $77.82 for time-and-a-half overtime — and insiders predict that at the rate he’s going, he’ll likely eclipse his 2011 earnings and pull in more than of the agency’s other 7,300 full-time workers.
“He’s on track to earn more than $280,000 in 2012,” one PA official glumly noted.
Through the end of May, Rivera had racked up $69,164 in overtime pay based upon a mind-blowing 888 hours of OT, the official said.
That computes to about 40 hours of overtime each week.
The OT is readily available to workers such as Rivera because the PA is bound under its collective-bargaining agreement to staff a certain number of supervisory posts with sergeants, a source explained. And with just 141 sergeants on the force — about 20 fewer than needed — the department is forced to offer OT.
As The Post has reported, the agency is reluctant to promote officers to sergeant to address the situation because it believes it’s cheaper to just pay the overtime rather than higher base salaries.
“Anyone with half a brain has to realize that this is a management problem,” one police official said.
Rivera’s healthy appetite for OT is well established, according to SeeThroughNY, a government-transparency Internet site:
* In 2010, Rivera earned $259,304, including $152,193 in OT.
* In 2009, he earned $228,460, including $126,251 in OT.
* In 2008, he earned $220,257, including $124,581.
A PA spokesman insisted the agency has succeeded in curbing OT hours by an overall 14 percent during the first quarter of 2012.
Paycheck it out
Port Authority Sgt. Edwin Rivera (including $166,035 in overtime) $273,946
His boss, PAPD Superintendent Michael Fedorko $215,098
Gov. Cuomo $179,000
NJ Gov. Chris Christie $175,000
State Supreme Court justice in NYC $160,000
Senior NASA rocket scientist assigned to New York area $155,500
Additional reporting by Doug Auer