The 1 percent lost a little footing last year in the state’s workforce. According to records, the number of state employees earning more than $250,000 a year dropped from 72 in 2012 to 62 this year.
Employees at the University of Massachusetts dominate the big-ticket earners, with all but four of the 62 members of the Quarter Million Dollar Club on the university system’s payroll. In fact, Dr. Henry Nields, the state’s Chief Medical Examiner, is the only non-education employee to break into the top earning category, with a salary of $257,500. That ranks him 51st. The other three non-UMass top earners are presidents of other colleges. Overall, 51 of the top earners are men and 11 are women.
Among those at UMass with the quarter-million dollar salaries, nearly 70 percent are administrators, mostly presidents, executive vice presidents, provosts, chancellors, and deans. There are 11 professors earning more than $250,000 and another four department chairmen. UMass’s coaches for the men’s Division 1 programs of basketball, football, and hockey all earn more than $250,000, as does the UMass athletic director. The highest paid women’s coach is the UMass women’s basketball coach who earns $213,000 a year.
For the third year in a row, Dr. Michael Collins, chancellor of UMass Worcester, topped the salary charts with earnings of $592,850. Bonuses and incentives in each of the last two years bumped Collins’s earnings over $760,000.