Join us for our installment of the Pacesetters Doing Business series featuring Mass General Brigham on August 7, 2025.
08/07/2025
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Virtual
The BIMA Summer Sizzler is a chance to network with your digital media industry peers from the agency, publisher, and adtech community!
08/14/2025
6:00pm - 9:00pm
Fenway Park
Enjoy networking with fellow members and hear from Chamber Staff on how to best leverage your Membership to achieve your business goals.
09/09/2025
3:00pm - 4:30pm
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
This program is in redevelopment. Click this page for DEI resources.
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PRESS RELEASE
March 6, 2023
Compensation of New General Manager Must be an Investment in the Future of the Region
The future of downtown and the entire Commonwealth hinge on the future of the MBTA. It cannot be overstated that we are at a critical turning point with our public transit system that impacts people, families, neighborhoods, and businesses every day. The oldest public transit system in the country desperately needs a General Manager with the transit expertise to lead and transform the complex operations, systems, and workforce. Securing that transit, operations, and management expert is a priority and will require compensation that meets the demands of the market and ensures that the Commonwealth is wisely investing in a role that will strengthen the MBTA.
The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce retained Executive Rewards Advisory, a global, independent firm based in Washington, D.C., to analyze the compensation of executives at the largest, most extensive public transportation systems. The report found that we can expect the MBTA will need to offer the chosen General Manager candidate competitive base compensation in the range of $450,000 to $500,000, given the size and complexity of the MBTA as well as the current market for top talent. The total compensation package will include additional traditional benefits such as health care coverage, retirement contributions, etc.
The report by Executive Rewards Advisory details the compensation of CEOs and General Managers at other large transit systems, including Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Chicago Transit Authority, SEPTA, New Jersey Transit, LACMTA, BART, MARTA, and Toronto Transit Commission. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) was the most recent, complex transit system to hire a new CEO: In June 2022, Randy Clarke, a former MBTA manager, was recruited as CEO of WMATA with a base salary of $485,000 salary and a 10% bonus.
Like the transit system in Washington D.C., the MBTA has a large workforce, services hundreds of thousands of riders from across the Commonwealth, and needs to overcome entrenched safety and reliability issues. As of December 2022, the MBTA’s average week of trips totaled more than 3 million, well below pre-Covid numbers, and the new GM will be challenged to grow this ridership at least in part to help mitigate ongoing local highway congestion. The MBTA employs more than 6,000 employees and needs more. In August 2022, federal investigators concluded that the MBTA might need to hire as many as 2,000 more workers to safely run trains, buses, and ferries at existing service levels.
“This is about the future of the service, safety, and culture of the MBTA, and to ensure success, we must invest in hiring the best expert to lead the system forward. This is a long-term investment in a role that will stabilize and transform our T, which is for the benefit of the people of Massachusetts,” said James E. Rooney, President & CEO, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. “When the administration hires the General Manager, we must ensure that this leader is successful in turning the T around – and a crucial part of ensuring success is accountability. With the appropriate salary, there is the simultaneous demand for the new General Manager to deliver strong results that benefit the future of the Commonwealth. The Chamber will continue to partner with Governor Healey, Secretary Fiandaca, and the new General Manager to drive impact in the operations, workforce, and performance of the T.”
“The employees of State Street depend on the MBTA every day, and we must have a leader who can successfully manage and inspire confidence in our public transportation system. And, for every community in Massachusetts, the T is a lifeline and resource that is a necessity. The study of the necessary compensation for the General Manager reveals what we know to be true: to fix the current challenges of the T, we need to make a significant, strategic investment in this role,” said Ronald P. O’Hanley, CEO of State Street and Chamber Board Chair.
Media Contact: Casey Baines [email protected]
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