Updated: February 2, 2012. Now includes 2011 civil service, CSU, and state legislative pay, and 2010 University of California pay.

This database allows you to search the salaries of California's 300,000-plus state workers and view up to four years of their pay history. To see overtime, retirement payouts and extra pay, click a name after your search.

To find a state employee, use the form below. For quicker searches, use the first and/or last name. You can also search by agency or salary level.

To see the highest-paid employees in a particular department, choose an agency from the dropdown menu and leave other fields blank. To see a list of the highest-paid employees in the state, choose "Salaries over $400,000" from the dropdown menu and leave other fields blank.

Sources: University of California President's Office; California State Controller's Office; California Legislature.

Results for civil service workers are the actual amounts paid to them during 2011, according to the State Controller's Office. Results for legislative staffers show pay as of October 2011 projected out for the remainder of the year. Gross pay includes overtime, bonuses, housing allowances, sick leave payout, vacation payout and multiple other forms of cash compensation. Some workers promoted toward the end of the year will see their old job titles listed here. None of the data presented has been changed from what was released to the Bee by the State Controller's Office, the University of California President's Office and the California Legislature.

On names that show up in the database twice: Some state workers performed two jobs during 2010. For instance, a full-time lieutenant working for the Department of Corrections may work several part-time shifts as a sergeant. He would be listed twice here, and to see his total salary, you would add up both figures shown. This phenomenon is especially common in the California State University system. Outside the CSU system, well over 99 percent of workers only show up in this data once.

UC salaries only include those earning a total of more than $20,000 in 2010. Also, the UC system blanked out the names of several thousand student assistants in their latest data release, most of them earning a relatively small amount.

On comparing past year salaries: The Bee determined past pay by matching the first name, last name, middle initial and department of employees with the same criteria from past years. Also, a state worker who wasn't hired until recently won't have any salary history. State workers hired in the middle of a previous year may appear to have a large jump in pay during the subsequent year -- that's because this database logs the actual amount paid to each worker during the entire year. Likewise, workers who left state service during the middle of 2011 may appear to have a dip in pay -- or even a big jump if they cashed out lots of vacation time.