The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power paid its five highest-earning workers a staggering $3.84 million last year, including nearly $2.1 million in overtime, as Angelenos struggled to keep up with soaring utility bills, a California Post investigation found.

LADWP’s eye-popping paychecks are part of a staggering $2.65 billion annual payroll and benefits bill, with 114 employees pocketing more than half a million dollars apiece.

The department’s five highest-paid workers — four distribution supervisors and an electric distribution mechanic — collected a combined $3.84 million, with every one of them earning more in overtime than regular pay, according to wage figures verified with LADWP.

One mechanic pulled in a jaw-dropping $505,769 in overtime alone, pushing his total annual wages to $760,685. The utility’s highest-paid supervisor collected $779,192, including $434,281 in overtime.

LADWP refused to provide the names of those five employees despite multiple requests from The Post.

The publicly owned utility paid its 13,623 employees a whopping $2.3 billion in wages, plus another $350.3 million in employer retirement and health contributions, a California Post review of 2025 compensation records published by the California State Controller found.

The 114 employees earning more than $500,000 collectively raked in $66.1 million in a single year,  averaging nearly $580,000 each.

The staggering payouts come as Los Angeles ratepayers are being slammed with soaring utility bills and demanding an independent audit of the agency responsible for keeping their lights on.

“I’ve paid more this year to LADWP in utility bills than I have in property taxes,” Reed told The Post.

Fed up, Reed launched a petition demanding an independent audit and relief from steep summer electricity rates. It had collected more than 39,000 signatures as of Tuesday.

He took his demands directly to LADWP’s Board of Water and Power Commissioners Tuesday.

“We demand some real answers,” he told The Post.

LADWP defended the hefty overtime payments as a “necessary and cost-effective tool” to keep the lights on while the department struggles to fill critical positions.

The utility pointed to the January 2025 Palisades fire, major storms, extreme heat and a shortage of highly trained electrical workers.

“In the case of the Palisades wildfire response, some staff worked weeks without a day off,” department spokeswoman Kimberly Briggs told The Post.

The department said the workers perform critical jobs, maintaining and restoring power for more than 1.6 million customers, particularly during emergencies.

“These classifications are in high demand throughout the utility industry, making recruitment and retention increasingly competitive,” Briggs said.

LADWP also noted that training a power-system electric line crew foreperson takes at least four years, while civil service hiring rules can delay filling vacancies.

But longtime utility watchdog and KFI AM 640 radio host John Kobylt wasn’t buying the explanation.

“LA residents have been getting ripped off for decades,” Kobylt told The Post. “No one puts it to a stop.”

He blasted LADWP as “a completely corrupt organization from top to bottom.”

The payroll records reveal just how widespread the massive paydays have become.

Of the 114 employees who earned more than half a million dollars, 36 were electric distribution mechanic supervisors, 30 were transmission and distribution district supervisors and 26 were electric distribution mechanics.

Another 321 employees earned more than $400,000, while 901 wage records topped $300,000.

Department-wide wages surged 8.3% from 2024 to 2025, reaching approximately $2.3 billion, according to California State Controller records. Add $350.3 million in reported employer retirement and health contributions, and the total climbs to roughly $2.65 billion across LADWP’s water and power operations.

LADWP countered that overtime accounts for just 5% of its $10.8 billion budget, while total labor costs make up 18%.

But the department did not provide a breakdown showing how much of its top earners’ overtime stemmed from specific emergencies and how much was driven by routine staffing shortages.

For Venice apartment owner Craig Ribeiro, the soaring cost of electricity is another reason living and owning property in Los Angeles is becoming increasingly difficult to justify. Ribeiro told The Post that rising energy bills are piling onto other expenses, pushing him toward selling his property next year.

Even his renter, who moved from Oregon, was stunned by the electricity costs.

“I told her welcome to Los Angeles,” Ribeiro said.

Ribeiro sees the utility’s massive salaries as part of a broader pattern of taxpayer spending with little accountability. He compared the payouts to the city’s homelessness spending, where he believes residents have seen “little to nothing to show for it.”

The city’s independent ratepayer advocate has warned that electricity costs will continue climbing as Los Angeles pushes toward carbon-free power, while acknowledging that many costly upgrades to the aging electrical grid would be necessary regardless of the city’s environmental goals.

LADWP maintains that its electricity rates remain lower than those of neighboring utilities.

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