Washington's Millionaire State Employees Are Men, Mostly Coaches

SEATTLE, WA — The state updated its database of government employee salaries this week, and five state workers earned over $1 million in 2018. Not surprisingly, all but one of them was either a University of Washington or Washington State University coach.

WSU football coach Mike Leach was the highest-paid Washington state employee in 2018, earning $3.58 million, a more than 14 percent increase over 2017. That pay bump pushed Leach ahead of UW football coach Chris Petersen, who was the highest paid employee in 2017. Petersen made $3.47 million in 2018, up from $3.41 million in 2017.

Three other state employees earned over $1 million in 2018: UW basketball coach Michael Hopkins at $1.92 million (up from $1.37 million in 2017); WSU basketball coach Ernie Kent at $1.40 million (up just $800 from 2017); and UW chief investment officer Keith Ferguson at $1.2 million.

Washington's highest-paid woman in 2018 was UW President Ana Marie Cauce, who earned $749,000, just 20 percent of what Leach made. You would have to add up the salaries of Cauce and next four highest-paid women to get close to Leach's pay. Even then you'd be $170,500 short, which is about as much as Gov. Jay Inslee made in 2018.

Speaking of Inslee, elected officials in Washington are far from the highest paid employees. Elected officials all got raises on July 1, but their 2018 pay was modest compared to hundreds of other state workers:

• Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst — $190,600
• Gov. Jay Inslee — $175,900
• Attorney General Bob Ferguson — $161,500 (Ferguson was the second-highest paid in the AG's office behind managing attorney general Shane Esquibel, who took home $162,700)
• Treasurer Duane Davidson — $143,700
• Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz — $136,400 (she was the second-highest earner at the Department of Natural Resources, behind emergency operations administrator Aaron Schmidt, who made $150,400)
• Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal — $135,800 (he was the 8th highest-paid at OSPI)
• Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler — $125,700
• Auditor Pat McCarthy — $123,300
• Lt. Gov. Cyris Habib — $115,700

(Secretary of State Kim Wyman earned $0 in 2018, according to the database — we've reached out to state officials to find out more about that. Wyman earned $122,100 in 2017.)

The state database also includes salaries for local public radio reporters. In March, former Northwest News Network producer Emily Schwing quit her job over pay gaps between men and women.

"Breaking: Schwing quits the Northwest News Network. Number one reason? My male colleagues make tens of thousands of dollars more for the same work. And tbh — making this public scares the s--t out of me," Schwing wrote on Twitter on March 6.

The 2018 data show that Schwing and Richland-based reporter Anna King earned around $55,000 per year. Meanwhile, Puget Sound-based Northwest News Network correspondents Austin Jenkins and Tom Banse made $78,300 and $71,300, respectively.

Both Schwing and King's jobs are based out of Washington State University, while Banse and Jenkins work for KUOW at the University of Washington. That's the reason for the pay disparity, a WSU spokesman told Crosscut in March.

However, for the cost of one Mike Leach, WSU could pay the salaries of about 64 public radio producers.

The entire database of state worker salaries is available for the public to browse on the state fiscal information website.