You Paid For It: Councilmember salaries throughout S.C.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Our local elected county council members make an average of $16-17,000 in pay every year, according to numbers published by the South Carolina Association of Counties.

Statewide, third-most-populous Charleston ranks second for Council Chairman pay ($26,124).

Most populous Greenville County pays its Council Chairman the most ($35,560).

Charleston's average council member pay is third behind Greenville and York counties.

Of our local counties, Charleston and Dorchester County council members make the most on average, $20,737 and $20,000 respectively.

Colleton and Williamsburg council pay amounts were unlisted in the report.

Despite having the second-highest population of the seven local counties we checked, Berkeley County council members were paid less than smaller counties like Dorchester (midpoint $20,000) and Georgetown (midpoint $15,947).

Berkeley council members’ midpoint pay was $12,640. Notably, though, the hours listed for Berkeley council members were "7″ versus “40” listed for the other counties.

Richland County council members are paid nearly $12,000 less than Greenville’s despite Richland being the second-largest county by population.

However, Richland council members' hours are recorded as "25" versus "37.5" in Greenville.

Also demonstrated in the report, Charleston’s General Fund budget of $251 million is much higher than in other counties.

The next closest general fund budget is Horry County ($181 million), Richland ($176 million) and Greenville ($174 million).

You can check out more public salaries and pay comparisons in the FY 2020 Wage and Salary Report.

A wide variety of county positions statewide are listed and grouped by population size.

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