With Chicago facing a projected deficit of more than $1 billion in 2026, why does the city's salary database show at least a dozen aldermanic aides with salaries close to $200,000?

The database is wrong, but staffers are getting hefty bonuses.

While Aldermanic staffers can't technically get bonuses or overtime pay, they can get what some are calling temporary salary adjustments, which opens up a debate about whether city workers should get end-of-the-year pay hikes and how they should be awarded.

A CBS News Chicago viewer sent an email noting the City of Chicago's salary database showed something that seemed unbelievable.

One assistant to an alderman was shown to be making more than $268,000 a year. Another's salary was listed at more than $238,000. Another alderman's staff assistant was listed with a salary of more than $237,000 a year.

At least a dozen aldermanic staffers were listed with salaries higher than their bosses. The top-paid alderman makes $152,000 a year.

Those aides were listed with salaries even higher than the mayor, who is paid $221,000 a year.

The City Clerk's Office said the yearly salary data listed on their website is not correct.

For example, Ald. Scott Waguespack (32nd) provided a paystub for an employee whose reported salary was $237,000, but whose actual year-to-date earnings total only $97,000.

In a statement, the Office of Budget & Management explained that the numbers are incorrectly inflated, due to "temporary pay increases applied toward the end of the budget year," or what most people would call end-of-the-year bonuses.

"That is, of course, a transparency problem. We have a city data portal that shows taxpayer-funded salaries. It ought to be accurate. We ought to be showing the real amount," Chicago Inspector General Deborah Witzburg said. "I can also imagine fixes to this data problem involving the Department of Finance. They're the people who cut the paychecks."

Witzburg said it also exposes a broader issue: bonuses are typically a private-sector tool, and there aren't guidelines governing how surplus salary funds— if there are any — are distributed.

"To protect against unfairness and inconsistency, to protect against a situation where taxpayer dollars are being used to reward political loyalty, or whatever the case may be, all of the things which we would be vulnerable to, either in reality or in appearance, without really clear policy and guidelines," Witzburg said.

Ald. Chris Taliaferro (29th), for example, said the extra funds in each alderman's annual staff budget can be due to things like resignations, terminations, or leaves of absence. He said he reallocates unspent portions of his $309,000 annual staff budget accordingly.

Several City Council members defended the practice of providing their staff with temporary salary bumps, saying it prevents turnover and rewards hard-working staffers.

Nevertheless, critics like Witzburg contended that Chicago's projected $1.15 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2026 should perhaps motivate aldermen to return any unspent funds to the city's budget.

"It certainly seems, at least in other places in the budget, like the city is able to repurpose unspent salary dollars. It might be particularly important to do that in this environment," she said.

Witzburg said her office has no plans to investigate this particular issue. CBS News Chicago did not name any specific employees in this story because they didn't do anything wrong.