State payroll: Health Care is very very good to employees

The health care field has, as they say, been very very good to state employees, at least those at the top of the pay scale, according to data out Tuesday from the Empire Center. The fiscally conservative think tank has assembled a list of Top 10 earners and, with the exception of Nano College’s Alain Kaloyeros, they all are at SUNY or CUNY medical centers. State psychiatrists also did well according to the survey.

The Empire Center has also posted its annual database of state government payroll, transparency that drives many privacy-minded public employees bats.

Here are the details:

The complete 2013 New York state government payroll is now posted on, the Empire Center’s government spending transparency website.

The updated database includes the names, titles, base pay rates, and total pay of more than 287,000 individuals who worked in the state’s executive, legislative, or judicial branches at any point in calendar year 2013. Taxpayers can search state government payroll records dating back to 2008.
The data show:

  • • For the second year in a row, the highest paid employee on the state payroll is Antonio Alfonso, who has the title of teaching professor and chairman of the Department of Surgery at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center. His pay totaled $1,086,145.
  • • 1,316 state government employees earned more than the governor’s $179,000 salary.
  • • Of the top 50 highest paid executive branch employees, 49 worked for one of the State’s psychiatric centers or are a psychiatrist; 44 of the 50 highest paid employees at SUNY and CUNY worked at hospitals.

Not reflected in the data are costs of pensions, health insurance for employees and retirees, and other benefits. Tables listing average pay by executive agency and the 50 highest-paid employees by branch of state government in 2013 are attached.

Find the data here; below is a Top 10:

  1. Bob says:

    Yep. The health care field has been good to state employees, just as it’s been good to private sector and not-for-profit sector employees.
    In other news on CapCon, dog bites man.

  2. Skeptical says:

    Rick, nice reprint of the press release. Any chance of some reporting…say, a comparison to private practice salaries?

  3. Council 82 says:

    Where did the idea of affordable health care and secondary education die for the younger generation? We didn’t even add corporate profits right down to the college bookstore rip offs.

  4. O'Rrly says:

    Try not to imply that actual state employees, outside of politically appointed hacks and those working for the privatizing shadow agencies (like LIPA) are getting anytype of salary close to that. I hate how when the TU can’t find an excuse to villify the average state employee based on REAL NEWS, they often find ways to put together articles that piece together words and phrases that make the average ignorant reader from the public think that state employees are raking in the big buck. Believe me, we’re not!

  5. Joe Dunphy says:

    ahh yes the annual attempt to paint all public workers as massively over paid.

    we do nothing to reign in things like CEO pay and other corporate executive pay and other forms of compensation (all while using tax payer money to bail them out/provide corporate welfare) but for the love of God we have to beat up the public employee each and every year.

    as Bob stated… the healthcare field is lucrative for both private and public. Is it no strange coincidence that health care costs are going through the roof year after year? Things like price fixing and subsidies are driving the costs of health care through the roof. There is noting on the demand side to reign in costs. Its health… so people will pay whatever price tag you throw up.

  6. Elaine says:

    No one deserves those kind of salaries! In addition, it’s time all state employees receive similar benefits to private sector employees. Times have changed and they need to start paying their fair share, just like the rest of the working class.

  7. Dirtnut says:

    Elaine how about private sector coming back up to the public employee standards. People have allowed the private CEO’s to drag their employees down with false claims and the promise of millions in 401k’s… Wall St profited from that big time. I know far too many of you that do not believe that there are lots of private companies that have far better pay and bennies than public. Verizon would be one, still retire after 30 years, pay no health insurance, a friend of mine retired from there with 30 years plus he got 6 bonus years, so pension credit of 36 years, retired at 53, last year he turned 65 and was madder than a wet hen, because Medicare started collecting the $100+/- per month out of his check for health care. So he was PO’d because at age 65 he was paying for health insurance for the FIRST time in his life. Lots of construction unions offer 30 and out. So Elaine get off the downward spiral and work on your company to bring back the pay, bennies, and retirement that all Americans deserve. So stop jumping on Cuomo and Walkers bandwagon and start fighting for yourself. Elaine how about Jamie Damon at JP Morgan, his company paid $20 BILLION+/- in fines and penalties last year because of all the scandals, he got a 74% raise of over $8 million dollars last month as a show of good faith from the Board of Directors he appointed, so I suppose that is a state workers fault. There are example after example in private sector of over paying executives but no one ever gets on that bandwagon, golden parachutes abound for screw ups, rewarded for bad behavior.

  8. Responsible Liberal says:

    Humph? I hear all the time on here how public employees don’t make any money compared to the private-sector. But I see a lot of six-figure salaries up there. Throw in the Rolls Royce benefits and some even go up to seven figures.

    This state is doomed.

  9. Dirtnut says:

    OOOPS typo sorry Elaine, Jamie Dimon…. with his 74% pay raise to $20million/year plus some $30+/- million more in stock options, the POOR private sector peasant deserves to have his name spelled correctly!!!

  10. Council 82 says:

    Elaine, the working class and state employees are one in the same. What happened to affordable health care? At one time I paid $800 a year for a $3200 family health care plan. The providers within this health care plan extended well beyond the general health care provider. Even anesthesiology health care groups accepted this health care plan. Co-payments were $5. I now pay over $4000 per year with less participating providers within my network. I paid Westchester Hospital an additional $900. My 90 day medical co-pay for prescription drugs just went from $30 to $50. I understand that in the private sector these monetary employee contributions seem low and Gov. Cuomo has been effective in selling this negative public image about state employees but the majority of state employees don’t even come close to the salaries of the higher paid “state employees”. Even Andrew Cuomo doled out up to $50,000 in bonuses to his inner circle. That is as good as hitting the lottery in my book but it’s pocket change to Andrew. The working class deserves better treatment. Even tax breaks are geared towards corporations that contribute to the political machine. Small business owners deserve these tax breaks but they are just not politically connected and even Andrew wants payment.

  11. Jim says:

    Wonder what the private sector would be paying for these people. The salaries paid to these people are much higher than the average salary of unionized workers in state service, Salaries are many time more.

  12. Jim says:

    @Elaine #6. If one thinks the grass is greener on the other side take the test and get hired. Most large employers offer equal benefits or better benefits than the State. They offer time off, matching 401k contributions (not Stateworkers) free parking (not downtown. Stateworkers), health coverage options, bonuses (not Stateworkers) prescription coverage, dental coverage, technology (not most Sateworkers) that is up to date, yearly pay raises (Stateworkers got 2 years of deficit reductions or pay decreases and another year of zeroes). One could argue that the cost of goods sold in the private sector is impacted by highly paid CEOs and employees and to make products more affordablle they should reduce pay and benefts. Lastly, most government jobs above $50,000 require a masters degree and expperience.

  13. Dirtnut says:

    a little perspective is needed here… If 1,316 employees made more than the governor, if compared to the 230,000+/- total state employee’s of all branches, that only comes out to 0.57%. How many brokers, traders, hedge fund mgrs., etc… on Wall St. alone made the same $1 million+ or more salary as the top paid doctor? Did Wall St save anyone’s life? No but they sure do affect your everyday life as far as prices of commodities, food, gas, oil, etc.. Also it was stated that 49 of the highest paid Executive Branch were Pysch Center Administrators or actual Psychiatrist, so I wish the TU could compare how many private Pysch Centers or Hospital Administrators made the same or more in comparison. The sheep in this blog read State Worker, don’t matter to them if it is a Head of Surgery at Downstate Med, all they see is ‘State Worker’, so then to them the person plowing their snow makes the same amount, it is just the mindset that Andy has drilled into the sheep. Someday I would hope you would actually do an apple to apple comparison rather than just an attention getting headline.

  14. ITWorker says:

    Is it supposed to be news that doctors, heads of hospitals, and professors at medical schools make a lot of money? What are the salaries of similar positions in non-state facilities with the same credentials? I certainly hope that nobody is advocating that New York State owned/operated facilities or schools look for the least qualified candidates.

  15. jackiebass says:

    Look what people in the financial sector make. Compared to them these people work for peanuts. Which produces more value to society? Someone in the medical field or someone from the financial sector?

  16. JG says:

    What do state-employed RNs and technologists make per year vis-à-vis the private sector? Answer, much less. CDPC gets new nurses, when they get a year under their belt, they go down the street to Albany Medical Center.

    Why doesn’t funnyman Ed McMahon and his “Empire Center” show how much money people make at the non profits like Albany Medical Center? Probably because the numbers will show James Barba takes home a lot more than $1M, and Barba and his friends perhaps funnel money to the “Empire Center”.
    PS, state workers are NOT dooming NYS. The benefits are OK, they used to be better, but are no where near luxurious.

  17. Stateworker says:

    If a comparison was done between state worker titles and private sector equivalents, the only tiles that you would find where the state worker job pays more than the private sector job would be in most CSEA represented titles. CSEA job titles are primarily filled by high school graduates at best and as such the job skill sets are lower grade. You will find basically file clerks making $50,000 per year in the state, probably worth half of that in the private sector. Throw in the enhanced benefits that CSEA workers enjoy, lower premium cost for health care than more professional state titles.

  18. hawkny says:

    What bothers me about these medical types is the money they are getting on the side, and not reporting to their primary employer. We had an example of that a few months ago out in Syracuse. These full time, public, medical employees cannot be moonlighting, especially with private sector concerns. As for private sector employees, especially in the not-for-profit medical and educational sector, there should be an upper limit on senior manager salaries, as long as their organizations enjoy “exempt” status when it comes to paying municipal taxes for the facilities and land they operate on. It seems to me that these folks unfairly have it both ways, at the expense of the rest of us. Barba’s salary should not be allowed to be above, say, $750,000 from all sources, as long as AMC gets a free ride on local taxes… You want the pay, Jim, you gotta pay…..!

  19. Norman says:

    In the Republican dystopia, the social enemies are those that teach your kids and the public employees. It is an unusual newspaper that focuses on the perceived abuses of the workers and gives the plutocrats a “pass.” Reporters at the TU are bit players in the big racket of “class warfare” against the wage earner.

  20. Barrabas says:

    The only significant difference between P.T. Barnum and Alain Kaloyeros is the absence of a public gullible enough to give Barnum a $600,000 lifetime pension.

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