UW, WSU Coaches Highest Paid State Employees: Data

OLYMPIA, WA — The state has updated its list of state employee pay, revealing how much every single employee earned in 2017. As in most past years, university coaches are the highest paid state employees. In a change from 2016, the state added a new million-dollar employee who's not a coach — a University of Washington administrator.

Here's a breakdown of the numbers:

Highest Paid

University of Washington football head coach Christopher Petersen was the highest paid employee in 2017, earning more than $3.4 million. Petersen earned almost 19 percent more than he did in 2016.

Petersen was first hired in 2014 and earned about $2.7 million that year. His 2017 compensation was about 27 percent higher than in 2014.

Top 10 Highest Paid

There was only one woman among the top 10 highest paid state employees in 2017.

1. Christopher Peteresen, UW football coach — $3,419,600
2. Mike Leach, WSU head football coach — $3,139,600
3. Ernest Kent, WSU head basketball coach — $1,405,500
4. Michael Hopkins, UW head basketball coach — $1,379,900
5. Keith Ferguson, UW investment officer — $1,181,800
6. Lorenzo Romar, UW basketball coach — $852,700
7. Ana Marie Cauce, UW president — $734,000
8. Garth Reistad, UW deputy investment officer — $719,400
9. Christopher Murray, UW professor — $715,400
10. James Lake, UW assistant football coach — $701,900

Women Underrepresented

As is the case in the larger workforce, there were far fewer women than men among the top earners. The top 10 highest paid women are scattered among 56 men. (Women in the U.S. on average earn about 79 cents for every $1 a man earns.)

Interestingly, the top 10 highest-paid women all work at the University of Washington. The highest paid non-UW employed woman is state Social and Health Services psychiatrist Rosa Epistola ($404,600).

1. Ana Mari Cauce, UW president — $734,000
2. Jacqueline Cabe, UW vice president — $617,200
3. Ruth Mahan, UW vice president — $603,000
4. Cynthia Hecker, Northwest Hospital management — $504,300
5. Jennifer Cohen, UW associate vice president — $490,000
6. Connie Kravas, UW vice president — $453,800
7. Jasjit Dillon, UW vice president — $449,600
8. Maureen Broom, UW provost — $442,600
9. Patricia Kuhl, Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences — $439,400
10. Mary Lidstrom, vice provost for research — $426,600

Gender Pay Gap

If you calculate that Cauce and Petersen work about 40 hours per week (and they likely work much more than that), their pay works out to about $367 per hour for Cauce and $1,709 per hour for Peteresen.

Washington Median Pay Comparison

The median individual pay in Washington is about $55,000, according to the latest Census estimates. Petersen's salary alone is equivalent to 62 median income earners.

The sum of all five employees who earned more than $1 million in 2017 was just over $10 million - enough to pay 191 median income salaries.

Salaries Of Elected Officials

Scattered among the thousands of state employees are a few elected officials, including the governor, secretary of state, and attorney general. There are also the state representatives and senators, whose salaries you can find at the link below.

Here's how they rank for 2017 earnings:

1. Gov. Jay Inslee — $174,200 ($172,500 in 2016)
2. Attorney General Bob Ferguson — $159,000 ($157,3000 in 2016)
3. State Treasurer Duane Davidson — $137,000
4. Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal — $133,800
5. Public Lands Director Hilary Franz — $129,900
6. Secretary of State Kim Wyman — $122,100
7. State Auditor Pat (Patrice) McCarthy — $118,500
8. Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib — $104,800

Want to explore salaries of state officials? Head to this website.

File photo by Neal McNamara/Patch