The $250 million in overtime costs Pennsylvania paid out to state workers last year is an eye-opening number.

But until there’s a full analysis of how that figure stacks up against the cost of full-time worker hirings that would have eliminated the need for much or all of that overtime, state residents should delay condemning that seemingly excessive outlay.

Full-time salaries and fringe benefits to which those additional employees would be entitled would exact a heavy toll on the commonwealth’s coffers as well.

Nevertheless, state residents should be aware of such spending. Likewise, they should be aware of why overtime pay has grown so significantly over a short time.

An Associated Press article in Tuesday’s Mirror reported that the $250 million 2015 overtime cost represented an increase of nearly 10 percent over 2014. The article said an analysis of state payroll records by the Sunday Times of Scranton revealed a five-year trend of increased use of overtime.

That time period encompassed both Republican and Democratic gubernatorial administrations.

According to the Scranton newspaper’s data compilation, the increasing use of overtime has been fueled by hiring freezes and unfilled job vacancies.

But there were other causes, too, such as overtime necessitated by implementation of new child-protection laws passed as a result of the Jerry Sandusky and Roman Catholic clergy child sexual-abuse scandals.

Unfortunately, the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese has been a troubling cause of some of that additional overtime spending.

Pope Francis’ visit to Philadelphia last September was welcomed and uplifting to the state as a whole, but it didn’t occur without cost to government financial resources.

State police staffing for the visit was extensive, and that staffing involved much overtime because of the need to maintain normal police coverage and duties across the rest of the state while the pontiff was here.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s article also emphasized the overtime costs associated with needed around-the-clock medical care at state hospitals as well as prison employee overtime.

Blair County is keenly aware of the prison-overtime issue, having wrestled with it for several years.

A drop in overtime at the Hollidaysburg lockup recently has been deemed “encouraging,” but that has evolved mostly because of the hiring of 12 additional full-time corrections officers.

In essence, the county is paying less from its overtime “pocket” but more from its fulltime “pocket,” although it seems more palatable to be paying straight wages rather than time-and-a-half pay for hours worked beyond the regular eight-hour workday.

That’s an issue for the state to delve into also, due to the more than doubling of state prison overtime since 2010, when it was $49 million. The total amount spent for overtime last year was $100 million.

One encouraging step is the current examination by the nonpartisan Legislative Budget and Finance Committee of the benefits of utilizing prison overtime versus hiring more staff. That study presumably will provide guidance going forward, not only regarding the prisons but other departments as well.

If the state is due any criticism at this point regarding overtime spending, it’s that leaders only now seem to be getting serious about weighing the two options — overtime and additional hiring — against one another to determine which one is most cost-effective.

That task should be a routine exercise.