According to the University of Arizona’s 2017–2018 salary report, the university spends over $875 million on faculty and staff salaries. 

Since the UA uses public tax dollars for its expenditures, the university is obliged to make public the salaries of all UA employees public. The Daily Wildcat filed a public records request to obtain the full salary database. 

Are you interested in seeing where your tuition or tax dollars are going? The Daily Wildcat has posted the full database online at dailywildcat.com, and it includes all 12,124 UA employees, from deans to graduate students. 

This year’s database has been released under the auspices of a Title IX lawsuit claiming pay inequities at the UA and the departure and payout of high-profile athletic coaches. 

The lawsuit filed by former Honors College Dean Patricia MacCorquodale accused the UA of underpaying women employees, particularly female deans. 

Another UA dean has joined the lawsuit, and pay equity has become a prominent issue in recent faculty governance elections. 

The raw data provided by the UA did not include data points for gender. Short of searching each name using the UA’s directory, that means the database can’t be arranged to sort male as opposed to female salaries.

This database offers raw insights into how the university pays its employees and, on a deeper level, reveals what the UA values. 

The database was compiled earlier this year, and so does not reflect the departure of former UA football head coach Rich Rodriguez, who was the highest paid UA employee for many years. He is still listed as the UA’s highest earner.

It also does not reflect the new hires made at the UA throughout the year, including the addition last week of Dr. Michael Dake as the new senior vice president of Health Sciences.

Here is our top nine takeaways for the 2018 fiscal year.

According to the University of Arizona’s 2017–2018 salary report, the university spends over $875 million on faculty and staff salaries. 

Interested in seeing where your tuition or tax dollars are going? Check out The Daily Wildcat‘s salary database or read on to see our top-9 takeaways for fiscal year 2018.

1.) Former football head coach Rich Rodriguez was the highest paid employee, earning $2,475,000 during the 2018 fiscal year

Rodriguez is followed by men’s basketball head coach Sean Miller, who made $2,200,000. Both received their full salaries for the year and were not paid with any state funds.

2.) Sean Miller received a $100,000 raise, the same as the previous year

Miller will be the highest paid employee next year as new football coach Kevin Sumlin’s salary will start at $2 million but grow to a record $3.5 million. 

3.) UA President Dr. Robert Robbins is the fifth highest paid employee on campus with a base salary of $800,000

Robbins’ base salary is $300,000 more than former President Ann Weaver Hart, who barely made the top 25 highest paid employees list last year. Robbins is also given additional money in the form of stipends from the University of Arizona Foundation and at-risk compensation from the Arizona Board of Regents.  

4.) UA’s highest paid woman is Leigh Neumayar, interim senior vice president of Health Sciences and department head of surgery

After receiving a $145,000 raise, Neumayar jumped from the fifth highest paid employee to the third highest paid employee on campus, making $870,000, second only to the major sports coaches. 

5.) The median salary for full-time UA employees is $54,797, which is $1,239 above the state median income of $53,558 according to 2016 Department of Commerce statistics 

This is down from last year’s $1,833 difference. 

6.) 1,988 out of UA’s 10,087 full-time employees, or about 19.7 percent, make over $100,000 dollars 

This is an increase from last year’s 1,917, which represented just shy of 19 percent of full-time employees.

7.) 10,087 of UA’s 12,124 employees, or about 83.2 percent, represented in this year’s database are full time. 

Compared to last year, UA’s database shows 950 less full-time employees.

8.) Of the top 100 paid employees, only 15 do not work at either the UA’s College of Medicine or its Department of Health Sciences 

The other 15 work in administration as deans of colleges or vice presidents or athletics. 

9.) Look at the data yourself and send us what you find!

Also, watch out for future stories where we will dig deeper into the data.

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