The state's t op earner for 2010 is William Wood, the assistant
medical director and staff psychiatrist at the Singer Mental Health
Center in Rockford.He took home $361,439.80, almost half of which
came from overtime beyond his base salary of $201,636, according to
public records obtained by Illinois Statehouse News.
Wood is joined by Robert Stanley Rupnik, chief investment officer
for the Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, or TRS, as the state's
highest paid employees in 2010.
Rupnik made $300,776.90, a 15.96 percent jump from his 2009
salary of $256,187.75, making him the second-highest earner among
state employees in 2010.
"Like hiring a physician to work at the University of Illinois to
teach neurosurgeon, you need a professional that is qualified and
entirely competent," said Dave Urbanek, spokesman for the TRS.
While the U.S. Department of Labor doesn't keep wage information
on Rupnik's specific type of job, it does indicate that a general
financial manager's average salary is between $148,920 and $168,640.
"We need sound investment of money given to us by our members and
state," Urbanek said. "To do that, we need professionals that
normally would be working on Wall Street."
At the same time as Rupnik was getting a $44,589.15 raise in
2010, the state's largest retirement system saw its funded liability
-- how much the system has promised to pay current and future
retirees minus the amount of money and assets available to pay those
pensions -- decrease from 52.1 percent to 48.4 percent, or about
$4.9 billion.
In fact, during fiscal 2009, which ran from July 1, 2009, to June
30, 2010, the retirement fund investments lost $8.69 billion, or 26
percent, according to the annual report of the TRS.
Urbanek said the salary increase came from a 13-member board of
trustees that sets Rupnik's salary annually. Calls to various board
members were not returned.
Seven doctors employed by the Illinois Department of Human
Services round off the list of the top 10 highest paid state
employees in 2010, according to state comptroller records.
Wood, in addition to being the highest paid, is also the longest
serving employee of the top 10 high earners, having worked at Human
Services since 1988.
The other top-paid physicians averaged $261,889.88 in pay for
2010, at least $60,000 of which per doctor was earned above their
base pay. State-employed physicians' pay is calculated on a monthly
salary.
A typical psychiatrist employed by a state government makes
$196,020, or $5,616 less than the base salary for Illinois' top
psychiatrist, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics.
"There are just a lot of factors of why these are eight of the
top 10 earners in the state Illinois … They're doctors; doctors do
have a high salary wherever you go," said Januari Smith, spokeswoman
for the state Department of Human Services. "No. 2, they are members
of the union, so they get all the pay increases all union
(employees) get."
All of the doctors are members of the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31, and are entitled
to the raises in the union's contract with the state, Smith said.
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Since the doctors belong to AFSCME and are employed under a
collective-bargaining agreement signed in 2008 by then-Gov. Rod
Blagojevich, they must be paid overtime.
The contract states: "Employees who are authorized and do work in
excess of their normal work week in any one scheduled period shall
receive overtime credit for such hours."
That's a sharp contrast to private-sector doctors in Illinois and
public-sector doctors in surrounding states. A survey of hospitals
in major metropolitan areas throughout Illinois revealed that they
do not have unionized doctors. Representatives for the various
hospitals said their salaried doctors generally don't receive
overtime, but they can pick up additional shifts.
Neighboring states are a mixed bag when it comes to
state-employed doctors and unions. In Wisconsin, state doctors not
in managerial or supervisory roles belong to the Wisconsin
Physicians and Dentist Association, a public-sector union. In Iowa,
however, state physicians do not belong to public-sector unions.
Anders Lindall, a spokesman for AFSCME in Illinois, countered
that it's not completely unheard of for doctors to unionize and that
doctors working for the state deserve the benefits of being in a
union as much as any other state worker.
While the doctors received a 2 percent pay increase in July under
the current union contract, workers in 14 other state agencies were
denied the same raise, because Quinn said the state doesn't have
enough money to fund the pay hikes.
The top doctors also are set to get an additional 2 percent raise
in February. That deal came through an agreement Quinn signed with
AFSCME shortly before the November election, which deferred a 4
percent pay hike set for July of this year.
Psychiatrist Howard Paul, who recently moved to Janesville, Wis.,
started his job while living in Illinois, said Smith. Illinois and
Wisconsin have an agreement whereby residents pay income taxes in
the state where they work, so Paul's income taxes go into Illinois'
coffers. Paul was one of the 1,018 out-of-state residents who
collected a check from the comptroller's office in 2010.
There is little the state can do in a situation like Paul's,
where the person was originally an Illinois resident but later moved
out of state, as long as the person can perform their job,
Smith said. However, an agency cannot hire a non-Illinois resident
when a qualified Illinois resident is available. This rule came into
place following an executive order issued by then-Gov. Jim Thompson
in 1979.
Paul was one of the three people who lived out of state on the
list of 590 state workers who made more in 2010 than Quinn's salary
of $174,013.26.
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By ANDREW THOMASON]
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