In a recent report (2021), city employees’ salaries were listed as 10 to 22 percent higher than the national average and median respectively. During the same time period, The Woodlands Township average salary was 25 percent lower than the USA average and median salary was 69 percent lower than the USA median.

Currently, the city administrator of Shenandoah makes over $175,000 annually, while the city of Houston paid its mayor $234,031 in 2022. Houston’s population is about 400 times that of Shenandoah. Governor Abbott earns $153,750 per year, while rank-and-file US senators and representatives are paid $174,000 annually.

Since Shenandoah is a general law city, its administrator (not the mayor) oversees daily management of the city. Shenandoah’s mayor does not receive a salary but is paid $545.45 per meeting he attends, with an average of two meetings per month.

In July 2020, Forbes published an article titled “Why Texas Is In Trouble—78,064 Public Employees With $100,000+ Paychecks Cost Taxpayers $12 Billion.” When the article was written, there were over 18,000 state and local employees who “out-earned” Governor Abbott.

Forbes listed the top 10 salaries for city managers in Texas which ranged from $319,946 (West Lake Hills) to $880,486 (Laredo). Most of those cities had populations well over 200,000, and only West Lake Hills had a population under 5000. In a related article Forbes reported that the $880,486 paid to Laredo’s city manager was part of a golden parachute. 

In 2022, Shenandoah city council voted to increase staff pay in the spring and then again later that summer.