Chicago Mileage Reimbursements: $24 Million Since 2005, All One Type

Chicago reimburses its employees two ways, and the second way is one thing only: mileage. The payroll-system file records 95,612 reimbursements worth $23,966,486.16 between July 1, 2005 and August 16, 2026, and every one of them carries a mileage label. The payments have thinned sharply — 9,976 in 2006 against 2,333 in 2025, 76.6 percent fewer — while the typical payment has grown, from a median of $243.86 to $315.

Employee Reimbursements Through Payroll System (tnbd-5zz7), 95,612 payments totaling $23,966,486.16, pay dates July 1, 2005 through August 16, 2026, retrieved September 16, 2026 and read whole; the file was last updated September 5, 2026 · the city’s own description says employees “may be reimbursed for expenses through two mechanisms” and points to the voucher file for the other · employee names were never selected · job titles and department names are labels as filed · 2005 begins on July 1 and 2026 ends on August 16, so neither is a full year · the file records no miles, no rate and no destination

One label, twenty-one years

Every payment in the file is filed as mileage: 95,373 read MILEAGE and 239 read MILEAGE PRIOR PERIOD, which is the whole of it. That makes this file narrower than its name suggests and narrower than its companion, the voucher file, where tuition, boots and travel share the ledger. The payments themselves are small: half are $245 or less, a quarter are $143.84 or less, and the largest single payment in twenty-one years is $3,137. The file also carries its own corrections — 82 negative payments totaling −$14,801.30 and 182 payments of exactly zero.

The payments thinned for years, then turned back up

Every year in the file. 2005 begins July 1 and 2026 ends August 16, so both are partial years.
Year paid	Payments	Amount	Median payment
2005	4,822	$996,917	$250.00
2006	9,976	$2,365,722	$243.86
2007	9,193	$2,188,257	$246.38
2008	8,646	$2,265,157	$269.68
2009	8,193	$2,157,312	$262.35
2010	7,071	$1,589,229	$213.95
2011	5,767	$1,217,766	$195.84
2012	4,075	$961,320	$222.06
2013	3,583	$924,126	$242.95
2014	3,454	$839,084	$228.20
2015	3,326	$813,942	$230.58
2016	3,407	$790,396	$220.32
2017	3,214	$739,434	$222.03
2018	3,060	$733,041	$231.56
2019	3,061	$790,081	$243.60
2020	2,380	$643,375	$254.15
2021	2,251	$618,558	$262.08
2022	1,995	$605,721	$284.31
2023	2,009	$682,559	$318.33
2024	2,272	$739,745	$298.09
2025	2,333	$783,604	$315.00
2026	1,524	$521,142	$318.39

2006, the first full year in the file, is also the largest: 9,976 payments worth $2.37 million. The count falls in all but a handful of years after that, reaching 1,995 payments and $605,721 in 2022, and has risen since — 2,009 in 2023, 2,272 in 2024 and 2,333 in 2025. The median payment moves the other way: $243.86 in 2006, a low of $195.84 in 2011, then a climb to $315 in 2025 and $318.39 so far in 2026. Fewer payments, each worth more, is what the file shows; whether that means fewer trips, fewer people driving them or a higher rate per mile, it does not say, because it records no miles and no rate.

Six departments hold four dollars in five

The twelve departments with the most mileage dollars, of 33 in the file.
Department, as filed	Payments	Amount	Share of dollars
Buildings	24,223	$5,579,007	23.3%
Transportation	14,695	$4,390,414	18.3%
Water Management	10,397	$3,027,852	12.6%
Streets and Sanitation	7,972	$2,306,418	9.6%
Fire	8,122	$2,047,878	8.5%
Public Health	10,980	$1,916,060	8.0%
Emergency Management and Communications	5,538	$1,775,771	7.4%
Fleet and Facility Management	3,763	$965,774	4.0%
Public Safety Administration	1,554	$463,640	1.9%
City Clerk	1,192	$392,188	1.6%
City Council	556	$176,930	0.7%
Housing	600	$165,629	0.7%

Buildings alone accounts for $5,579,007, 23.3 percent of the money, across 24,223 payments — more than a quarter of all payments in the file. Transportation follows at $4,390,414 and Water Management at $3,027,852; the six largest departments together hold 80.4 percent of the dollars.

Inspector titles carry a third of the mileage dollars

The ten job titles with the most mileage dollars, of 350 titles in the file. A title is a label on a payment, not a person.
Job title, as filed	Payments	Amount	Share of dollars
Building / Construction Inspector	12,833	$3,210,865	13.4%
Lineman	5,332	$1,881,908	7.9%
Traffic Signal Repairman	4,926	$1,556,030	6.5%
Plumbing Inspector	5,419	$1,456,398	6.1%
Field Service Specialist II	4,297	$1,380,930	5.8%
Sanitarian II	4,460	$727,806	3.0%
Electrical Inspector	2,907	$678,689	2.8%
Firefighter	2,435	$647,134	2.7%
Water Rate Taker	2,250	$591,522	2.5%
Lineman – Salaried	1,416	$501,990	2.1%

Building and construction inspector is the title on more mileage dollars than any other: 12,833 payments worth $3.21 million, 13.4 percent of the file. Taken together, the 35 titles with “inspector” in them account for 32,041 payments and $7.89 million — 32.9 percent of all the mileage money. The rest of the top of the list reads as field titles: linemen, traffic signal repairmen, field service specialists, sanitarians and water rate takers. A title is what the payment was filed under, and the file records nothing about the trip itself, so what any of them drove for is outside it.

What the file confirms, and what it cannot tell you

Confirmed, as filed: each payment’s date, amount, reimbursement type, department and job title. What no column read here holds: who was paid, which this page did not pull; how many miles any payment covers; the rate it was paid at; where anyone drove; and whether a payment covers one trip or a month of them. Because this is the payroll stream only, it is also not the city’s whole reimbursement bill — the voucher file holds the other mechanism, and the two are not added together here: they cover different periods and different kinds of expense.

Where the record lives

The payroll reimbursements file sits on the city’s data portal, where it was last updated September 5, 2026. Every figure here was computed from it as retrieved on September 16, 2026.

The bottom line

Chicago’s second reimbursement stream is a mileage ledger: $23,966,486.16 over twenty-one years, four dollars in five of it in six departments, and a third of it against titles with inspector in the name. Payments are three-quarters fewer than in 2006 and the typical payment is 29.2 percent larger than it was then. What the file cannot show is a mile, a rate or a route.

Two more questions the file can answer

How concentrated is the work? 350 job titles appear, but the ten largest by dollars carry 52.7 percent of the money. And how big can a single mileage payment be? The largest is $3,137, against a median of $245 — and 182 records carry an amount of exactly zero.

Source: the city’s Employee Reimbursements Through Payroll System file (tnbd-5zz7): 95,612 payments, pay dates July 1, 2005 through August 16, 2026, retrieved September 16, 2026 and read whole.
Two mechanisms: the file’s own description says employees may be reimbursed through two mechanisms and points to the voucher file for the other. Nothing here is added to that file’s totals.
Columns read: pay date, amount, reimbursement type, department name and job title. The employee-name column was never selected, so no person is named here, and job titles are counted as labels on payments.
Partial years: the file begins July 1, 2005 and ends August 16, 2026, so those two years are not comparable with the twenty full years between them, and are marked wherever they appear.
Not here: no miles, rates, routes or trip counts, none of which the file records, and no judgment of any department, title or payment.

Computed by KCM Desk from the city’s payroll-system reimbursements file, retrieved September 16, 2026. Human-guided and edited — about this desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.