25 Government Employees In PA Are Making $400K+ A Year

HARRISBURG, PA — Salaries of the highest-paid state government workers in Pennsylvania have significantly increased over the past several years, with several earning salaries of at least $500,000 and some 14,280 making $100,000 a year or more, according to public records.

A total of 25, meanwhile, made at least $400,000.

The statistics provided by the state-run PennWatch, which updates its databanks monthly to reflect raises and adjustments, indicate that nearly 3,000 more employees broached the $100,000 a year salary mark over the past year, as that number stood at 11,198 in April 2024.

It was 9,921 in 2023, meaning that the past year showed a significantly larger uptick in salary boosts than the year before.

There are just under 100,000 employees in the state, and the vast majority are nurses, police officers, administrative assistants, and others whose salaries fall well short of that mark.

The raises for medium to high earners come as some 12 percent of Pennsylvanians sit below the poverty line, and 41 percent have experienced financial hardship, according to US Census Data and an analysis by the nonprofit United for Alice.

Gov. Josh Shapiro's salary sits at $245,760, an increase from the $229,642 he started out at in 2023 and the $191,061 he made as attorney general. Those increases are normal, however, for a governor, just as they are for a judge and other higher state offices.

And those numbers are paltry compared to the state's highest earners.

The distinction of highest earner Christopher Fiorentino, the chancellor of the state's System of Higher Education, PennWatch shows. His salary sits at $485,000 now, but he also was serving as president of West Chester University last year (he's since retired), making his net earnings on the year $661,565, according to a PennLive analysis.

The same analysis found that the number of state employees making at least $200,000 per year has increased by more than 500 percent since 2020.

Many of the top 25 of earners are either doctors or education adminstrators.

Here's a full list of the 10 highest salaries in the state, according to PennWatch and PennLive:

1. Christopher Fiorentino, Chancellor, System of Higher Education - $661,565
2. Michael Brogna, Physician, Dept. of Human Services - $630,974
3. Mohammed Aslam, Staff Physician, Human Services - $546,611
4. R. Lorraine Bernotsky, Supervisory Physician - $524,215
5. Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, System of Higher Education - $516,612
6. Susan Lightbourn, Physician, $508,329
7. Miguel Salomon, Staff Physician - $495,688
8. Benjamin Cotton, Chief Investment Officer - $488,483
9. Michael Driscoll, University President - $487,464
10. Miko Rose, Dean, College of Medicine - $471,419

PennLive's full, ordered list is here.