MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The 20 highest-paid state employees last year worked for the Wisconsin Investment Board, which manages the investments of the Wisconsin Retirement System.
The board’s chief investment officer, David C. Villa, took home a state-high $834,000, and each of the other 19 employess made at least $300,000, the Wisconsin State Journal reported Sunday (https://bit.ly/1gEQxdb ).
The Department of Corrections paid the most of any state agency last year. The agency’s 10,000 or so employees made a total of $474 million, with a median salary of $46,000.
The investment board’s 159 workers made an average of $151,500, which was the highest in the state. The next-highest average was in prosecutors’ offices, where 442 employees made an average of $71,000.
The state Department of Administration paid a total of $1.6 billion in salaries last year, about 3 percent of which was for overtime. The department’s payroll data doesn’t include those working for the University of Wisconsin System or state Legislature.
About one-third of the agency’s employees, or about 13,500 people, worked in Dane County. They made a total of $671 million, a 4 percent increase from the previous year in which there were about 500 fewer employees.
The agencies whose permanent workers had the highest average salaries were the Public Service Commission ($63,512), the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands ($63,021) and the Employment Relations Commission ($62,350).
The lowest-paying agencies included the State Treasurer’s Office ($27,218), the Department of Veterans Affairs ($36,310) and the Public Defenders Office ($39,430).
The lowest average pay was for the 1,861 people who worked at Wisconsin State Fair Park. However, nearly all of them were temporary hires.
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Online:
Wisconsin State Journal database of state employee salaries: https://bit.ly/1gETrP3
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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, https://www.madison.com/wsj
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