Top 10 paid at UW

UW football coach Rick Neuheisel has jumped in the famed slot as the highest paid employee at the UW, forcing the position from Dr. James Perkins, a surgery professor, and burying UW President Richard McCormick in third place.

Neuheisel's listed pay jumped $200,000 to $525,000 annually. McCormick, by comparison, makes $296,400 a year.

Other notable faces in the top-10 salary list include Ronald Maier, director of the trauma center at Harborview Medical Center; Ronald Johnson, vice president of Computing and Communication; and Barbara Hedges, director of intercollegiate athletics.

The sources of payment for the salaries of UW employees vary, along with the amount of compensation, depending on the department under which the individual works.

Generally, the chair of each department, according to Mary Melanson, director of finance and administration at the Dean's Office of the College of Arts and Sciences, determines and submits a recommendation to the dean concerning the salary for full-time professors based on merit and peer evaluation.

Similarly, members of the School of Medicine, which make up half of the 10 highest-paid employees, also receive salaries determined by their department chair. According to L.G. Blanchard, director of health-sciences community relations, the variables which determine salary include rank as a faculty member, the amount of clinical care they provide, research funding and administrative responsibility.

Despite their appearance in UW's top-10, Blanchard explained UW professors in the medical center on average earn less than both doctors in private practice and medical professors in other top medical schools.

"The UW's mean salary for a full professor is 11 percent below the national mean of top-20 public medical schools," said Blanchard, referring to the a survey for the fiscal year 2000 from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Neuheisel, on the other hand, negotiated a four-year contract "between himself and his superviser, Barbara Hedges," said Jim Daves, assistant athletic directior for media relations. "Mrs. Hedges reports to Dr. McCormick ... regarding contracts for the head football coach." Daves added that unlike most faculty, many head football coaches at Division I institutions also use an agent during these contract negotiations.

Most of Neuheisel's salary does not come from the state, but from private and corporate funds instead.

According to his contract, Neuheisel's $812,000 compensation appropriated by the UW, which he received in 1999, included a base salary of $225,000, an annuity, a housing allowance, KOMO and Fox Sports NW compensation, car-coach program, family-travel allowance, country-club dues and a courtesy-car allowance. He also received outside compensation from Nike and other corporations in the sum of $85,000, a potential academic-performance incentive of $60,000 and a potential athletic-performance incentive of $40,000.

McCormick, due to his position as University president, goes through a somewhat different process in determining salary payments. According to Norm Arkans, associate vice president for University relations, the Board of Regents establishes McCormick's compensation based on comparison institutions and qualification.

In contrast to Neuheisel's salary, McCormick's salary is entirely state appropriated; while Neuheisel's compensation from the self-sustaining athletic department consists of ticket sales, TV and advertising revenue, and private gifts and donations, student dollars do not pay for Neuheisel's salary, said Arkans.

In general, according to Kevin Lustgarten, human-resource communications specialist, UW classified staff "received an across-the-board increase of 3.7 percent for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2001, and ending June 30, 2002."

However, yearly pay increases, excluding some promotions and staff currently in a pay-increase process, will not continue next year. According to Melanson, "No legislatively provided salary increases" will be implemented as of July 1, 2002, and the Board of Regents approved in May a UW budget without any cost-of-living increase.