Ellington

When it comes to making money, high-ranking university administrators in Washington state, including President Mark Emmert, are proving that general government employees are not necessarily the best paid.

Despite popular belief, Gov. Christine Gregoire barely ranks into the top 30 on the list of highest-paid employees in the state. She comes in at number 29, making $151,000 last year.

Higher education jobs lead the way, with nine of the top 10 highest-paid Washington workers coming from the UW.

At the top of the list is Emmert, making $518,000 last year. Next ranks Dr. Donald Miller, a UW professor of surgery and cardiothoracic surgeon, with $435,552. Third is football coach Tyrone Willingham, making $425,004.

"The marketplace is what drives salaries," said Norm Arkans, director of media relations and communications. "[The UW competes] in a national and international marketplace for talent."

In other words, these salaries, are not set-in-stone at a certain price, rather they compete with other universities.

"Emmert is competitive with other major research universities in the area," Arkans said. "The football coach is competitive with football salaries; hospital administrators are competitive with major hospitals around the country."

Miller has experienced the salary differences depending on workplace first hand. He left the UW in 1980 for a private practice at Swedish Medical Center, but returned in 2003 to help teach heart surgery to resident students.

"My pay was higher when in practice and when employed by Swedish Medical Center," he said. "Even so, I am happy to be back on the full-time UW faculty once again, teaching residents and medical students; something I do well and missed when in practice."

According to a survey released by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, college administrators saw a 4 percent increase in salaries this year.

Even with this increase, the survey shows the average salary for a college president is $207,999; Emmert makes double this amount. In fact, all of the top 10 positions make more.

Miller recognized this inflation.

"My salary in 2007 as a senior professor, in inflation-adjusted dollars, is the same as it was in 1978 as a newly appointed associate professor."

Arkans said that some of the funding for these high salaries is provided by the state, but many come from other sources.

"The athletic department is self-sustaining," he said. "They have no state funding."

For the UW, this means that much of the revenue for high salaries comes from ongoing research.

"Lots of the faculty members are very successful researchers as well," Arkans said. "[They] generate millions of dollars in research funding, most from out-of-state."

In the long run, this research creates money for the university by way of grants from the federal government as well as from other foundations and corporations.

The marketplace theory for salaries also explains why some fields are paid so much more than others.

For example, Arkans pointed out because the demand for doctors and other medical professionals is great, the pay is often higher than that of liberal arts fields, such as English, which often have a larger applicant pool and, therefore, greater competition.

As UW is a prominent university, it is likely to continue topping the charts in high-pay salaries.

"At this level and these fields, we want to be competitive and need to have salaries to attract people and keep them here," Arkans said.

Reach reporter Shannon O'Hara at news@thedaily.washington.edu.