Highest Paid State Employees in Massachusetts
Payroll makes up a significant budgetary expense for all organizations and state government is no exception. With Massachusetts spending billions of dollars in payroll every year, it is important to understand where the money is going.
Highest Paid Departments
The departments with over 500 employees across state government, quasi-public agencies, and higher education with the highest average pay, according to MassOpenBooks, include the State Police, MassPORT, the Department of Correction, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Executive Office of Technology Services and Education, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, with average total salaries ranging from $91,018 to $122,516. The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board has the highest average salary of $251,350 among its 71 employees.
The departments with the highest total payroll, per MassOpenBooks, include the University of Massachusetts System, the MBTA, Trial Court, Department of Correction, and Department of State Police, which cumulatively employ nearly 50,000 people and have respective payrolls of $1.7 billion, $717 million, $613 million, $440 million, and $435 million.
Higher Education
Many of the state’s highest paid employees come from higher education, as the average UMass professor made $166,518 in 2023 according to MassOpenBooks. Head Basketball Coach Francisco Martin was the highest paid state employee, making $1,657,581 in 2023. Michael Collins, the chancellor of UMass Medical School, and Terence Flotte, the medical school’s executive deputy chancellor, also both made over a million dollars.
Figure 1: MassOpenBooks: 2023
In total, nearly two dozen University of Massachusetts employees made over $500,000 in 2023, far exceeding any other state higher education employees. In fact, across over 20 other public higher education institutions, the highest salary in 2023 was $315,232, earned by Fredrick Clark, president of Bridgewater State University.
Quasi Public Agencies
Many quasi-public agencies had average salaries over $100,000 in 2023, according to MassOpenBooks. These include MassPORT, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management (PRIM) Board, the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority, the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, the Massachusetts State College Building Authority, and MassVentures.
A dozen quasi-public agency employees made over $500,000 in 2023. Michael Trotsky, executive director of PRIM, leads the way with a salary of more than $1.1 million.
Figure 2: MassOpenBooks: 2023
State Government
State government employees tend to make less money than other employees in the state, but some still make significant money. Top earners include Anand Shah ($504,784), Thomas Mccarthy ($501,765), William Cederquist ($439,059), Janice Grivetti ($436,908), John Strazzullo ($431,2750), and Shawn Riley ($430,796).
Figure 3: MassOpenBooks: 2023
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and State Police Department include many top earners, as Shah and Grivetti both work in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, while McCarthy, Cederquist, Strazzullo, and Riley work for the State Police. Much of their income comes from overtime pay, as all except Grivetti made over $200,000 in overtime in 2023. This allowed them to make more than their respective bosses – Mindy Hull, the chief medical examiner ($429,687) and John Mawn, the State Police superintendent ($278,798).
About the Author: Raif Boit is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at Pioneer Institute for the summer of 2024. He is a rising freshman at Harvard College.
