Here’s how many Ky. state employees make more than $100K. See top 6-figure earners
A little more than 4,200 people make or made at least six-figure salaries through the commonwealth of Kentucky recently, government records show.
The employees making at least $100,000 a year are among the 73,914 salaries cataloged and available through the state’s salary database at transparency.ky.gov.
Here’s what to know about the data there.
Salaries that appear in the searchable database include employees of the executive, judicial and legislative branch agencies, along with employees at post-secondary education institutions.
Executive branch salary data is updated on the seventh and 24th day of each month, according to the salary database website. It’s accurate as of the time-stamp date provided with the entry, per the website.
What state officials earn the most in Kentucky?
The absolute top-earner listed by the database is Chris Mack, the former head men’s basketball coach at the University of Louisville, who was making a salary of $4.25 million before he left his coaching position earlier this year.
Mack was one of five state employees listed in the database making more than $1 million.
It’s also worth noting that, in at least some cases, the database doesn’t account for a state employee’s total compensation.
University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari is a notable example. Calipari’s pay includes $400,000 from UK — the figure that shows up in the state’s salary database — but he’s also paid via Kentucky’s multi-media rights deal with JMI Sports and its apparel deal with Nike.
For the 2021-22 school year, Calipari’s total compensation as a head coach for UK is $8.1 million. That’s $400,000 from the university directly and an additional $7.7. million through JMI and Nike.
Other than the few individuals who make north of $1 million a year, the top 10 highest-paid people are all within the higher education sector.
The University of Louisville and University of Kentucky dominate the list of top-earners. Often, the employees have titles like “special advisor,” “vice president” or “director,” but some are also faculty members.
In fact, highly paid administrators and faculty members at the University of Kentucky and University of Louisville consistently dominate the top 100 highest-paid positions listed in the database.
They’re followed by employees at other regional universities around the state and agencies within the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development cabinets.
Again, excluding the few individuals who make more than $1 million annually, the top 10 earners currently listed in the database are:
Neeli Bendapudi, former University of Louisville president currently at Penn State University, $883,750.
Michael Karpf, vice president of executive health affairs at UK Health Care, $857,036.18.
Bryan T. McClellan Brown, associate head coach at the University of Louisville, $850,000.
Joseph Zwischenberger, regular faculty at the University of Kentucky, $819,999.96.
Michael Sekela, clinical faculty at the University of Kentucky, $800,000.04
Lori L. Gonzalez, interim president of the University of Louisville, $800,000.
Joshua W. Heird, interim athletic director at the University of Louisville, $731,795.
David J. Moliterno, regular faculty at the University of Kentucky, $728,000.04.
Matthew L. Mitchell, a coach at the University of Kentucky, $725,000.04.
Bernard M. Evers, director of the College of Medicine at the University of Kentucky, $717,034.56.
Lexington Herald-Leader sports columnist Mark Story contributed to this report.
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