This morning, the Tribune's Jon Hilkevitch reports that the highest pay for CTA bus drivers ranks third in the nation at $28.64 per hour and, when adjusted for the city's cost of living, comes in first. The top bus driver pay in the nation goes to Boston's MBTA at $30.18 an hour; New York comes in sixth overall at $27.99 an hour. Top pay for Pace drivers is $24.93 an hour, 17th overall. The report comes at a time when the CTA is trying to draw the CTA unions to the negotiating table to reconfigure contracts in an effort to save the city money. (The current contract runs through 2011.) Hilkevitch reports: more ›

With bus services slashed under the CTA's new budget proposal, CTA bus drivers made up a large chunk of around 2,000 CTA employees who received layoff notices in the mail. The jobs will be laid out over the next two months as the transit authority prepares for a budget shortfall of nearly $300 million. [Sun-Times] more ›