NYS payroll: Most top earners work for hospitals, public universities
The New York State Capitol in Albany on Feb. 25. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
ALBANY — Most of the 1,000 top earners on New York State government’s $16.5 billion payroll work for hospitals and public universities and research centers, a quarter of whom are on Long Island.
Long Island has 265 of those top-paying jobs statewide, with pay between $261,361 and $791,525 a year and totaling $87.6 million, according to payroll records reviewed by Newsday. Eighteen employees earn more than $500,000 per year. Thirty of the jobs are at Stony Brook University or Stony Brook University Hospital.
The 1,000 highest-paid earners all make more than $261,000 per year, for a total of $319.4 million, which is a fraction of the total payroll of more than 200,000 full- and part-time workers throughout state government. The average salary for a full-time equivalent state worker is $88,088, according to the state Comptroller's Office.
The payroll has increased by $2.2 billion since 2019, records show, even though the number of workers was 1,044 less than the same pay period in October five years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted employment.
State officials said the increased costs reflect annual raises, the need to pay overtime to cover staffing shortages, and to pay higher wages to hire and retain the best workers. Independent financial analysts, however, said the state needs to ensure that the hiring is necessary given the high costs, and not simply a response to demands by politically influential unions.
The fiscal year payroll from October obtained by Newsday from the state Comptroller's Office under the state Freedom of Information Law shows:
The highest pay statewide are:
$849,175 to Robert J, Corona Jr, vice president for hospital affairs at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse, hospital Health Science Center, $791,525 paid to Gary E, Bie, Stony Brook University Hospital vice president, $755,732 to Carol Gomes, assistant vice president for hospital affairs at Stony Brook University Hospital, She is one of three women in the Top 20,.
In addition to Bie and Gomes, the top pay for state jobs on Long Island include:
$617,392 to Carl W, Lejuez, vice president for student affairs at Stony Brook University, $586,000 to Richard Levis McCormick, president of Stony Brook University, $529,264 to Professor Luis Alverezgaume, a theoretical physicist who works on string theory and quantum gravity, $419,561 paid to Gene A, "Geno" Ford, basketball head coach at Stony Brook University, $412,000 paid to William C, Cosh, head football coach at Stony Brook University,.
Officials from Stony Brook, which is part of the SUNY system, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office did not respond to requests for interviews to discuss their hiring practices. Stony Brook provided a 2024 economic impact study in response to Newsday's request for comment.
SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis said in response to Newsday: “SUNY is a primary economic engine for our state — providing an excellent education that prepares New Yorkers to succeed in the workplace, offering life-saving care, conducting innovative research, and serving as a catalyst for indirect economic stimulus. This extraordinary work and this exceptional state demand the best, and that is why SUNY provides the competitive salaries necessary to attract and retain top talent in our industry.”
In its economic study, Stony Brook University said it contributed $3.43 billion in earnings each year to Long Island and provides more than 55,000 jobs in Suffolk County. The study said the university turns $1 in taxes into $16 in economic gain for the communities it serves, through purchasing goods and services by employees and students, to construction projects.
Another top earner is Felix V. Matos Rodríguez, chancellor of the City University of New York. He is paid $670,000 to run the 25-campus system as well as to raise money.
“CUNY’s chancellor oversees the nation’s largest urban public university system with 25 campuses, 240,000 degree-seeking students, 40,000 employees and a $4.1 billion budget,” said CUNY spokesman Noah Gardy. “His salary has not increased during his tenure and is lower than what his peers earn at other large public university systems and far less than what leaders at private colleges earn. CUNY needs to be able to offer competitive salaries to be able to attract top talent.”
But some are concerned about the cost of the state’s hiring.
"The governor really hit the gas on hiring two years ago," said Ken Girardin, research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy think tank based in Albany.
New York has the second largest state payroll cost in the nation behind California, the most populous state, according to a 2023 report by the U.S. Census Bureau. New York also has a slightly lower payroll cost than Texas, the second most populous state; and a larger payroll cost than Florida, the third most populous state, according to the Census data. New York is the fourth most populous state.
Although the governor’s office and State Legislature analyze workforce spending every year in preparing state budgets, and the state comptroller’s office audits spending, outside analysts say that hasn’t been enough.
Girardin said state government "should have been looking to make state agencies are more efficient instead, instead of just more full ... We’d gone through COVID and instead of pausing and say, ‘Let’s be thoughtful,’ you had the governor facing enormous political pressure from public employee unions (and) rubber-stamping their hiring demands."
"There are still stenographers on the payroll, for example," Girardin said.
The October payroll shows 10 people in office stenographer job titles making $42,032 to $100,100.
Girardin said the state should convene another panel of independent experts to research best practices from other states to modernize and make the workforce more efficient and responsive to changing needs. But such efforts are fraught with political implications for groups benefiting from the status quo, he said.
"You can’t manage what’s not measured," said Patrick Orecki, state studies director of the independent Citizens Budget Commission.
He noted the state has recovered much of the drop in the workforce since the pandemic, "however, spending did not decline," Orecki said. "Total spending on salaries and fringe costs has still increased every year ... The state should implement a performance management system and regularly take stock of whether its programs and workforce are delivering results in line with what taxpayers are contributing."
In an early December news conference, Hochul said the state is still suffering a workforce shortage, particularly in high-demand technical areas such as engineering.
The 2024-25 state budget, under the heading, "Rebuilding the Public Sector Workforce," stated in January that the workforce was short by more than 12,500 workers, with more than 26% of state workers eligible to retire within five years. The budget expends $18.8 million to attract and retain workers this year.
Hochul said the state must continue to spend more to rebuild the state workforce because the need goes beyond restoring the workforce to pre-pandemic levels. Hochul is wielding salary raises, pension sweeteners and other cash incentives to attract and retain administrators, technical and professional workers who can command high salaries as well as for health care workers and others represented by powerful unions.
"New Yorkers rely on the skills and expertise of engineers to build roads and bridges, construct large scale buildings, and prevent disasters from occurring," Hochul said this month.
"Engineering and the licensed positions that support it are some of the most competitive jobs in the world, and after extensive study of the job market, it is clear that state government needs to do more to attract a world class talent pool to New York’s public sector," Hochul said in announcing the latest incentives.
On Dec. 3, Hochul increased the pay for 2,600 employees in technical fields over 18 state agencies by $7,000 to $13,500. The raises will go to state jobs requiring engineers, architects, land surveyors, landscape architects and geologists.
In November, the state Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation approved raises beginning Jan. 1 to increase top administrators’ salaries by as much as 20% to 40% — up to $245,000 for the top department heads — effective Jan. 1, with another raise of 2% in two years.
In May, the Legislature and Hochul increased the pension benefits for 703,000 state workers hired since April 1, 2012. The change will cost state and local governments and their taxpayers $377 million this year.
By comparison, most New Yorkers in the private sector no longer have defined-benefit pensions and the median household income in New York state was $81,386, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median household income in Nassau County was $137,709 and $122,498 in Suffolk County, according to the report that used 2022 income records.
The labor-backed measures to attract and retain state workers appears to be working, according to a recent state analysis.
According to the state Division of Budget, the state workforce will grow to 189,664 full-time, annual workers by the end of this fiscal year on March 31. That would be the first time the workforce will surpass the 182,799 workers before the pandemic. The workforce had dropped by more than 10,000 workers during the pandemic, according to the Division of Budget’s count of full-time, annual jobs.
Among the public employee unions supporting Hochul’s initiatives is the Public Employees Federation, which represents 50,000 state workers with professional, scientific and technical jobs.
"We commend Governor Hochul for her commitment to investing in the state workforce to recruit and retain top talent," said PEF President Wayne Spence earlier this month. "Offering compensation on par with the private sector is a positive move toward attracting talented professionals to state employment."
Since Hochul undertook the effort to rebuild the workforce, PEF has contributed $67,000 to the governor’s campaign fund; $125,000 the campaign fund of the Assembly’s Democratic majority and $125,500 to the campaign fund of the Senate’s Democratic majority; and lesser amounts to Democratic incumbents and some Republicans in the minority conferences of the Senate and Assembly, according to state Board of Elections records.
ALBANY — Most of the 1,000 top earners on New York State government’s $16.5 billion payroll work for hospitals and public universities and research centers, a quarter of whom are on Long Island.
Long Island has 265 of those top-paying jobs statewide, with pay between $261,361 and $791,525 a year and totaling $87.6 million, according to payroll records reviewed by Newsday. Eighteen employees earn more than $500,000 per year. Thirty of the jobs are at Stony Brook University or Stony Brook University Hospital.
The 1,000 highest-paid earners all make more than $261,000 per year, for a total of $319.4 million, which is a fraction of the total payroll of more than 200,000 full- and part-time workers throughout state government. The average salary for a full-time equivalent state worker is $88,088, according to the state Comptroller's Office.
The payroll has increased by $2.2 billion since 2019, records show, even though the number of workers was 1,044 less than the same pay period in October five years ago, before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted employment.
State officials said the increased costs reflect annual raises, the need to pay overtime to cover staffing shortages, and to pay higher wages to hire and retain the best workers. Independent financial analysts, however, said the state needs to ensure that the hiring is necessary given the high costs, and not simply a response to demands by politically influential unions.
The fiscal year payroll from October obtained by Newsday from the state Comptroller's Office under the state Freedom of Information Law shows:
The highest pay statewide are:
- $849,175 to Robert J. Corona Jr., vice president for hospital affairs at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse, hospital Health Science Center.
- $791,525 paid to Gary E. Bie, Stony Brook University Hospital vice president.
- $755,732 to Carol Gomes, assistant vice president for hospital affairs at Stony Brook University Hospital. She is one of three women in the Top 20.
In addition to Bie and Gomes, the top pay for state jobs on Long Island include:
- $617,392 to Carl W. Lejuez, vice president for student affairs at Stony Brook University.
- $586,000 to Richard Levis McCormick, president of Stony Brook University.
- $529,264 to Professor Luis Alverezgaume, a theoretical physicist who works on string theory and quantum gravity.
- $419,561 paid to Gene A. "Geno" Ford, basketball head coach at Stony Brook University.
- $412,000 paid to William C. Cosh, head football coach at Stony Brook University.
Officials from Stony Brook, which is part of the SUNY system, and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office did not respond to requests for interviews to discuss their hiring practices. Stony Brook provided a 2024 economic impact study in response to Newsday's request for comment.
SUNY spokeswoman Holly Liapis said in response to Newsday: “SUNY is a primary economic engine for our state — providing an excellent education that prepares New Yorkers to succeed in the workplace, offering life-saving care, conducting innovative research, and serving as a catalyst for indirect economic stimulus. This extraordinary work and this exceptional state demand the best, and that is why SUNY provides the competitive salaries necessary to attract and retain top talent in our industry.”
In its economic study, Stony Brook University said it contributed $3.43 billion in earnings each year to Long Island and provides more than 55,000 jobs in Suffolk County. The study said the university turns $1 in taxes into $16 in economic gain for the communities it serves, through purchasing goods and services by employees and students, to construction projects.
Another top earner is Felix V. Matos Rodríguez, chancellor of the City University of New York. He is paid $670,000 to run the 25-campus system as well as to raise money.
“CUNY’s chancellor oversees the nation’s largest urban public university system with 25 campuses, 240,000 degree-seeking students, 40,000 employees and a $4.1 billion budget,” said CUNY spokesman Noah Gardy. “His salary has not increased during his tenure and is lower than what his peers earn at other large public university systems and far less than what leaders at private colleges earn. CUNY needs to be able to offer competitive salaries to be able to attract top talent.”
But some are concerned about the cost of the state’s hiring.
"The governor really hit the gas on hiring two years ago," said Ken Girardin, research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy think tank based in Albany.
New York has the second largest state payroll cost in the nation behind California, the most populous state, according to a 2023 report by the U.S. Census Bureau. New York also has a slightly lower payroll cost than Texas, the second most populous state; and a larger payroll cost than Florida, the third most populous state, according to the Census data. New York is the fourth most populous state.
Although the governor’s office and State Legislature analyze workforce spending every year in preparing state budgets, and the state comptroller’s office audits spending, outside analysts say that hasn’t been enough.
Girardin said state government "should have been looking to make state agencies are more efficient instead, instead of just more full ... We’d gone through COVID and instead of pausing and say, ‘Let’s be thoughtful,’ you had the governor facing enormous political pressure from public employee unions (and) rubber-stamping their hiring demands."
"There are still stenographers on the payroll, for example," Girardin said.
The October payroll shows 10 people in office stenographer job titles making $42,032 to $100,100.
Girardin said the state should convene another panel of independent experts to research best practices from other states to modernize and make the workforce more efficient and responsive to changing needs. But such efforts are fraught with political implications for groups benefiting from the status quo, he said.
"You can’t manage what’s not measured," said Patrick Orecki, state studies director of the independent Citizens Budget Commission.
He noted the state has recovered much of the drop in the workforce since the pandemic, "however, spending did not decline," Orecki said. "Total spending on salaries and fringe costs has still increased every year ... The state should implement a performance management system and regularly take stock of whether its programs and workforce are delivering results in line with what taxpayers are contributing."
In an early December news conference, Hochul said the state is still suffering a workforce shortage, particularly in high-demand technical areas such as engineering.
The 2024-25 state budget, under the heading, "Rebuilding the Public Sector Workforce," stated in January that the workforce was short by more than 12,500 workers, with more than 26% of state workers eligible to retire within five years. The budget expends $18.8 million to attract and retain workers this year.
Hochul said the state must continue to spend more to rebuild the state workforce because the need goes beyond restoring the workforce to pre-pandemic levels. Hochul is wielding salary raises, pension sweeteners and other cash incentives to attract and retain administrators, technical and professional workers who can command high salaries as well as for health care workers and others represented by powerful unions.
"New Yorkers rely on the skills and expertise of engineers to build roads and bridges, construct large scale buildings, and prevent disasters from occurring," Hochul said this month.
"Engineering and the licensed positions that support it are some of the most competitive jobs in the world, and after extensive study of the job market, it is clear that state government needs to do more to attract a world class talent pool to New York’s public sector," Hochul said in announcing the latest incentives.
On Dec. 3, Hochul increased the pay for 2,600 employees in technical fields over 18 state agencies by $7,000 to $13,500. The raises will go to state jobs requiring engineers, architects, land surveyors, landscape architects and geologists.
In November, the state Commission on Legislative, Judicial and Executive Compensation approved raises beginning Jan. 1 to increase top administrators’ salaries by as much as 20% to 40% — up to $245,000 for the top department heads — effective Jan. 1, with another raise of 2% in two years.
In May, the Legislature and Hochul increased the pension benefits for 703,000 state workers hired since April 1, 2012. The change will cost state and local governments and their taxpayers $377 million this year.
By comparison, most New Yorkers in the private sector no longer have defined-benefit pensions and the median household income in New York state was $81,386, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median household income in Nassau County was $137,709 and $122,498 in Suffolk County, according to the report that used 2022 income records.
The labor-backed measures to attract and retain state workers appears to be working, according to a recent state analysis.
According to the state Division of Budget, the state workforce will grow to 189,664 full-time, annual workers by the end of this fiscal year on March 31. That would be the first time the workforce will surpass the 182,799 workers before the pandemic. The workforce had dropped by more than 10,000 workers during the pandemic, according to the Division of Budget’s count of full-time, annual jobs.
Among the public employee unions supporting Hochul’s initiatives is the Public Employees Federation, which represents 50,000 state workers with professional, scientific and technical jobs.
"We commend Governor Hochul for her commitment to investing in the state workforce to recruit and retain top talent," said PEF President Wayne Spence earlier this month. "Offering compensation on par with the private sector is a positive move toward attracting talented professionals to state employment."
Since Hochul undertook the effort to rebuild the workforce, PEF has contributed $67,000 to the governor’s campaign fund; $125,000 the campaign fund of the Assembly’s Democratic majority and $125,500 to the campaign fund of the Senate’s Democratic majority; and lesser amounts to Democratic incumbents and some Republicans in the minority conferences of the Senate and Assembly, according to state Board of Elections records.
Michael Gormley has worked for Newsday since 2013, covering state government, politics and issues. He has covered Albany since 2001.
'No one wants to pay more taxes than they need to' Nearly 20,000 Long Islanders work in town and city government. A Newsday investigation found a growing number of them are making more than $200,000 a year. NewsdayTV's Andrew Ehinger reports.
'No one wants to pay more taxes than they need to' Nearly 20,000 Long Islanders work in town and city government. A Newsday investigation found a growing number of them are making more than $200,000 a year. NewsdayTV's Andrew Ehinger reports.
