Wayland employs a large workforce to deliver town and school services. But while the town has a relatively high share of six-figure earners, the composition and scale of those earnings differ from patterns seen in larger or more public-safety-heavy municipalities.
As of late 2025, according to the Payroll Department, the town and schools together had approximately 1,254 active employees across all roles, including full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions. Roughly 73% of these employees work for the School Department, while about 27% are employed by municipal (Town) departments. This distribution underscores that public education accounts for the majority of staffing in Wayland.
The single largest employee group is classroom teachers. The Wayland Teachers Association represents 343 teachers, followed by 355 school employees in non-union roles, including administrators, specialists, and instructional support staff. Municipal departments are significantly smaller by comparison. The Fire Department employs 26 uniformed firefighters, while the Police Department has 19 unionized officers along with a small number of non-union command staff. Other municipal groups include 57 Department of Public Works employees represented by the Teamsters, 57 AFSCME employees covering clerical and other town functions, and approximately 40 town management or non-union professional staff.
Staffing levels are heavily concentrated within the School Department. Wayland High School alone employs approximately 153 staff members, making it the largest single work location in town. The Middle School and three elementary schools collectively account for several hundred additional employees, with Claypit Hill employing about 116 staff, the Middle School with 104, Loker with 63, and Happy Hollow with 61. Beyond classroom staff, the school system relies on a large number of substitutes, coaches, after-school program employees, and program-specific staff.
Municipal staffing is more distributed across departments. The Police Department has approximately 39 active employees when sworn officers and civilian staff are combined, the Fire Department about 30, and DPW operations roughly 33 unionized employees, supplemented by management and clerical personnel. Other departments, such as the library and Board of Health, rely heavily on part-time staffing.
Payroll overview and department breakdowns
In FY2025, Wayland’s total gross payroll was approximately $67.97 million. Consistent with the staffing distribution, the School Department accounted for the majority of payroll spending. About $49.2 million, or roughly 72%, was paid to school employees, while municipal departments accounted for approximately $18.8 million, or 28%.
Teachers alone earned more than $35.1 million in FY2025, representing over half of all payroll dollars townwide. School non-union staff earned approximately $6.84 million, reflecting compensation for principals, administrators, and specialized personnel. On the municipal side, AFSCME employees earned about $5.31 million, DPW Teamsters $2.37 million, and town non-union management approximately $3.17 million.
By department, Wayland High School had the largest payroll at roughly $12.9 million, followed by the Middle School at $9.35 million and Claypit Hill Elementary at $8.47 million. Loker and Happy Hollow elementary schools followed at approximately $5.14 million and $4.94 million, respectively. Each of these individual school payrolls exceeded that of any single municipal department.
For comparison, the Police Department’s total payroll was approximately $3.39 million, and the Fire Department’s was about $3.32 million. Even combined, Police, Fire, and DPW payrolls were roughly comparable to, but still less than, the payroll of Wayland High School alone.
Pay distribution
Individual earnings in Wayland vary widely, reflecting the mix of full-time, part-time, seasonal, and professional roles. The median gross pay in FY2025 was approximately $42,600, meaning half of all employees earned less than that amount.
In FY2025:
- 464 employees earned $25,000 or less
- 624 employees earned $50,000 or less
- 318 employees (about 27 percent of the workforce) earned more than $100,000
- 25 employees earned more than $150,000
- Three employees were paid more than $200,000
This distribution reflects a workforce with a large base of part-time and seasonal employees and a smaller cohort of senior professionals and administrators earning at the top end.
Top earners in FY2025
The highest-paid individual was the Superintendent of Schools, followed closely by the Town Manager. Several senior school administrators also ranked near the top. Public safety personnel accounted for multiple positions within the top ten, and seven of the top twenty earners townwide were police or fire employees.
Beyond the top ten, additional high earners included school principals, the Director of Student Services, and several other senior public safety officers. One classroom teacher earned approximately $165,000, ranking within the top 20, illustrating how highly experienced educators with additional assignments can approach administrator-level compensation.
Composition of pay
Across the workforce, base salary accounts for approximately 91% of all payroll dollars. The remaining share consists of overtime, stipends, education incentives, retroactive pay, leave buybacks, and other contractual compensation. While these additional components are concentrated in certain departments, they represent a relatively small share of total payroll townwide.
School employees’ compensation is overwhelmingly base salary, while municipal departments show greater variation in pay composition. Year-to-year fluctuations reflect staffing levels, vacancies, and operational needs, but the overall structure of compensation remains stable.
Employees earning <$25,000
Low-earning positions represent a substantial share of Wayland’s workforce by head count, though they account for a small portion of total payroll cost. In FY2025, employees earning $25,000 or less represented about 39% of all employees paid that year. In FY2026 to date, that share appears higher, largely due to timing effects, as many full-time school-year employees had not yet accumulated a full year of earnings.
These roles are concentrated in departments that rely on part-time or seasonal labor, including recreation programs, after-school programs, substitutes, cafeteria staff, library employees, and seasonal DPW workers. More than 90% of employees in this earnings range are not full-time, consisting primarily of seasonal, temporary, or permanent part-time roles.
Year-over-year comparisons indicate that the underlying number of part-time and seasonal positions is relatively stable. Apparent increases in mid-year data largely reflect timing rather than a structural shift in staffing strategy.
Within the group of lower-earning employees, instructional aides and teaching assistants merit particular attention. Wayland employs roughly 140–170 instructional aides/teaching assistants across its schools in a typical year, with most working part-time or school-year schedules and earning above $25,000 annually once a full year is completed. Their presence in the $0–$25,000 earnings range does not indicate a predominance of very low-paid full-time positions, but rather reflects the pay structure and timing of school-year employment.
In FY2025, only 34 teaching assistants fell below the $25,000 threshold by year’s end, representing those with limited hours or partial-year service. In FY2026 to date, approximately 126 aides appear in this range at midyear, a temporary snapshot that captures school-year staff before they accumulate a full year of earnings. As the fiscal year progresses, most instructional aides move out of the lowest pay bracket, reinforcing that this group represents a sizable, stable component of the School Department workforce while accounting for a relatively modest share of total payroll dollars.
How the payroll compares
Public payroll data from other Massachusetts communities provide useful context for Wayland’s FY2025 figures. In Plymouth, a larger community, about 18% of employees earned more than $100,000, compared with roughly 27% in Wayland. However, Plymouth’s top earners were heavily concentrated in the Police Department. More than 20 Plymouth employees earned over $190,000 in a single year, most of them police officers, and several exceeded $200,000. By contrast, Wayland had only three employees above $200,000 in FY2025, and those positions were limited to senior administrative roles.
A similar pattern appears in Shrewsbury, where payroll analyses show hundreds of employees earning over $100,000, with police officers accounting for a disproportionate share of the highest earners. Wayland’s six-figure earners are more evenly distributed across experienced teachers, school administrators, and senior town officials, with fewer employees reaching the extreme upper end of the pay scale.
At the high end, Wayland’s payroll remains well below levels seen in large cities. In Boston, dozens of police officers routinely earn more than $300,000 annually, largely through overtime and paid details. No such earnings appear in Wayland’s records. The highest-paid Wayland employee in FY2025, the Superintendent of Schools, earned approximately $282,000, followed by the town manager at about $262,000.
