70 Percent of Wisconsin’s Highest Paid Public Employees Work for State University System

70 Percent of Wisconsin’s Highest Paid Public Employees Work for State University System

And yet people wonder why the cost of college keeps going up so rapidly. Is it really a mystery?

The College Fix reports:

In Wisconsin, 70 percent of the highest-earning public employees work for the state university system

Of the 100 top-earning state employees in Wisconsin in 2018, the vast majority worked for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a few at UW-Milwaukee, according to an analysis conducted by The College Fix.

According to a list generated by The Fix using public state employee salary information maintained by the Green Bay Press Gazette and Wisconsin State Journal newspapers, 50 UW-Madison professors and assistant professors made over $300,000 in gross pay in the 2018 school year. Topping the salary list for professors at the public university was economics professor and dean of the department Ananth Seshadri, who made $537,000 in 2018.

Seshadri’s salary was higher than the president of the UW system, Raymond Cross ($525,000), and the chancellor of UW-Madison, Rebecca Blank ($500,000).

The most highly paid professors clustered primarily around financial-related fields. Of the 50 professors making more than $300,000 per year, 78 percent were instructors in a finance-related field (finance, economics, administration, real estate, accounting, marketing, management). Of these professors, 15 taught economics and seven taught finance.

In addition to professors, UW-Madison also employed seven deans that made over $300,000, led by former Business School Dean Barry Gerhart, who made $460,000. Law School Dean Margaret Raymond was paid $389,000, while former Dean of the College of Letters and Science John Scholz earned $388,000.

Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.