HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - The number of Pennsylvania state government employees who make at least six figures currently includes nearly 10,000 workers, according to a Pennlive.com report published Tuesday.
There were 9,751 state employees who surpassed $100,000 in earnings in 2019, the news organization found. That number increased by 7.5% from the prior year and has grown by about 27 percent over Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s five years in office, Pennlive reported.
About one in every 11 state employees across all three governmental branches are paid more than $100,000 a year, it reported.
The total payroll cost for the $100,000 club is now more than $1.2 billion per year, based on 2019 records.
The highest earners are three people who get paid more than $400,000 a year - a Department of Human Services supervisory physician, the chief investment officer at the Public School Employees’ Retirement System and the chancellor at the State System of Higher Education.
Others in the earnings top 10 include other physicians, deputy chief investment officers and a university president.
The earnings can include more than salary to encompass overtime, longevity payments, bonuses and other compensation.
Pennlive said the administration’s own statistics show the average full-time salary of the more than 80,000 people under Wolf’s jurisdiction was $58,332 last year.
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