Maryland’s $100K earners up 6% from 2010

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Last year, 5,522 state employees brought home paychecks that added up to $100,000 or more, according to salary figures from the comptroller’s office. That’s about 6 percent of most full-time workers employed by the state and 383 more than in 2010.

Almost three-quarters of everyone making more than $100,000 were affiliated with the state’s university system. A total of 4,034 of the state’s $100,000+ earners work at a University of Maryland campus, the University System of Maryland central office, the state’s other universities and colleges, or Baltimore City Community College.

MarylandReporter.com’s analysis was done from a list of 92,000 state employees and their 2011 salaries obtained from the comptroller’s office. Full-time employees with salary, annual and daily rates were studied for this analysis. Contract employees, employees with no salaries listed and employees from county courthouses were not included in this analysis.

All but two of the highest paid 25 employees work for the medical school at University of Maryland, Baltimore.

The top-paid employee is Medical School Dean E. Albert Reece, who is paid an annual salary of $799,547. Following Reece is Stephen Bartlett, chairman of the surgery department, who is paid $785,046. Third is Bartley Griffith, chief of University Hospital’s cardiac department, making $771,611.

The fourth highest-paid employee is one of the two in the top tier who is not part of the medical school: UMB President Jay Perman, also a medical doctor, makes $710,000 a year. Following down the line, the next top salaried person who is not part of the medical school is USM Chancellor William Kirwan II, who makes $490,000 a year. Kirwan is the state’s 23rd highest paid employee. (The governor makes $150,000.)

The next highest paid employee who is not affiliated with the medical school is University of Maryland, College Park, President Wallace Loh, who is paid $450,000. Loh is 33rd on the list of best-paid state employees.

Top-paid coaches

Top University of Maryland athletic coaches Gary Williams, who retired as the men’s basketball coach at the end of last season, Williams’ replacement Mark Turgeon, and football coach Randy Edsall are all tied for 44th place with $400,000 base salaries. Women’s basketball coach Brenda Frese ranks 67th with her salary of $364,648.

The listing from the comptroller’s office this year does not include bonuses or other incentives the coaches may have received that may have been included in last year’s figures.

Kirwan said that there is good reason why the university system has some of the highest paid employees in state government.

“Maryland wants to have top-rated academic programs,” Kirwan said. “We have to pay the compensation and the salaries to get the best talent.”

The highest paid non-university employee is Paul Wiedefeld, the head of the Maryland Aviation Administration and director of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. He makes $262,307 a year, the 265th highest salary in the state.

University of Maryland, Baltimore, officials say that the amounts that the comptroller’s office says the professionals in the medical school are paid are accurate. However, the entire amount does not come from taxpayers.

Mike Lurie, spokesman for the university system, said that figures from the comptroller’s office tend to include research grants that doctors bring in, as well as some of the funds they make in their private practices. Lurie said that most doctors who work for the medical school also see patients in their regular practices outside of their teaching work.

Research grants

Ed Fishel, the director of the university’s news bureau, said that 67 percent of UMB’s $1 billion budget comes from research grants and clinical care. Only 18 percent of the university’s funds, Fishel said, come from taxpayers.

“In other words, our doctors and researchers are bringing huge amounts of money into the Maryland economy,” Fishel wrote in an email.

Neither university system officials nor officials from the comptroller’s office could say why these funds are included in salary calculations. Central payroll employees said the figures provided were amounts paid out by the state.

Perman said that physicians at University of Maryland, Baltimore, teach 60 percent of the people who become doctors in the state. In order to keep that reputation and provide high-quality health care instruction, Perman said some of the world’s most innovative physicians work with the university.

“We have to be leaders in the health care marketplace to do cutting-edge research,” Perman said.

There are state employees making more than $100,000 in most departments throughout government. However, some departments have more top-earners than others.

According to an analysis of full-time salaried employees, the State Board of Contract Appeals has the largest proportion of employees making six figures or more, with 60 percent in that top range — though the board only has five employees (three of them make $100,000 or more).

Looking at larger departments, more than a third of the salaried employees at the University System of Maryland’s main office (36 percent) make six figures. And one of the three employees at the Maryland Commission on Correctional Standards is paid more than $100,000.

Governor’s office

Employees in the governor’s office have the next highest proportion of six-figure salaries; 26 percent of them are in the top tier. A quarter of the employees in the Maryland Energy Administration and the Board of Public Works (which only has eight employees) each make more than $100,000.

At least a fifth of all salaried employees at the University of Baltimore, University of Maryland Baltimore, the Office of the Capital Budget, the State Treasurer’s Office, the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office, the Secretary’s Office in the Department of the Environment, and the Health Access/Cost Commission make $100,000.

The average salaries in these departments are also some of the highest. According to an analysis of all annual salaries of employees, the average salary of an employee in the University System of Maryland’s main office is $98,703.

Some of the other departments with high average salaries include the State Board of Contract Appeals, which pays an average of $89,067; the Maryland Health Insurance Plan, which has an average salary of $84,891; the Office of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, with an average salary of $80,000 (with only two employees); University of Maryland Baltimore, which pays an average of $79,711; and the secretary’s office in the Department of the Environment, with an average salary of $79,381. Close behind these is the Health Access/Cost Commission, with an average salary of $79,042.

25 highest-paid state employees in 2011

Employee Job 2011 salary

Edward Reece UM Medical School dean $799,547

Stephen Bartlett UM Medical School surgery chair $785,046

Bartley Griffith UM Medical School cardiac chief $771,611

Jay Perman UM baltimore president $710,000

Bruce Jarrell UM Medical School executive vice dean $680,000

Jonathan Bromberg UM Medical School surgery division head $650,000

Vincent Pellegrini UM Medical School orthopedics chair $647,704

Mandeep Mehra UM Medical School chair in medicine, chief of cardiology $638,927

Andrew Pollak UM Medical School chief of the division of orthopedic traumatology $607,300

Sunjay Kaushal UM Medical School director of pediatric cardiac surgery $600,000

Scott Strome UM Medical School director otolaryngology-head and neck surgery $580,325

Peter Rock UM Medical School director of anesthesiology $576,501

Sanford Stass UM Medical School pathology department chair $574,378

James Brown Former UM Medical School cardiothoracic doctor $568,091

Robert Gallo UM Baltimore Medical School director of virology $552,289

Christopher Harman UM Medical School director of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive services $531,000

David Zimrin UM Medical School cardiac catherization lab director, leads interventional cardiological training program $520,000

Rajabrata Sarkar UM Medical School head of vascular surgery $511,826

Robert Redfield UM Medical School chief of infectious diseases; director HIV program $510,820

Howard Eisenberg UM Medical School chair of neurosurgery $500,000

Johannes Bonatti UM Medical School professor of cardiac surgery $496,475

Claudia Baquet UM Medical School associate dean for policy and planning $494,000

William Kirwan II UM System Office chancellor and CEO $490,000

Nader Hanna UM Medical School associate professor of surgery and head of surgical oncology $484,828

Steven Ludwig UM Medical School associate professor of orthopedics and chief of spinal surgery $481,350