As state lawmakers struggle to close up to an $8.7 billion budget gap, it’s time to take a close look at how much state workers are compensated. And many make plenty.
The top 250 highest-paid state employees earn about $76.3 million, with University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach Jim Calhoun earning the most at $1.6 million. The next highest paid state employees are UConn football coach Randy Edsall at $1.4 million and UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma earns $1.3 million.
The next highest-paid state worker is Dr. John Nulsen, an infertility specialist at the University of Connecticut Health Center, who receives $884,408 annually.
By comparison, David Carter Sr., who heads Connecticut’s state university system, earned $400,000, a quarter of Calhoun’s salary. UConn’s President Michael Hogan earned about $614,000, while Jeffrey Hathaway, UConn’s athletic director, earned $554,000.
Consider that Gov. M. Jodi Rell didn’t even make the list of the top 250 state wage-earners at $150,000, nor did the state’s constitutional officers, including Treasurer Denise Nappier and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who earn $110,000.
While the state must evaluate its pay scales, state workers should consider doing what many private-sector employees have already done: agree to a temporary pay cut of at least 5 percent. Notably, there is movement to cut pay. UConn President Hogan recently announced that managers of Storrs-based programs will lose annual pay increases and may be required to take furlough days, beginning July 1.
If the top 250 state wage earners allowed a 5 percent pay cut, the state could save nearly $4 million while sending a strong message to taxpayers that they are doing their part to reduce the state deficit.
An across-the-board pay cut may not be fair for all state workers, particularly those earning $50,000 or less. If state employees earning more than that agreed to a temporary pay cut, it would go a long way in preserving state jobs, desperately needed social services and programs that will make the state stronger economically.
There are an estimated 55,000 state workers whose total compensation — salary and benefits — account for nearly a third of the state’s $18.8 billion budget. Salaries alone account for $4 billion. A mostly across-the-board 5 percent cut would shave about $200 million off state spending.
Considering that state workers receive relatively generous benefits, with low-cost health care co-pays and several paid days off, a temporary pay cut would be a move in the right direction that struggling taxpayers would welcome.
Although lawmakers recently voted down a 10 percent pay cut on legislative workers, they should consider a pay cut at half that amount.
