OU employees will receive higher salaries this academic year, with $76,057 of university revenue going to pay raises for the university’s top 10 highest paid employees.
Even after Ohio University President Roderick McDavis' raise this August, he still isn't collecting the university's largest salary.
For the second year in a row, Saul Phillips, OU’s head basketball coach, is the highest paid university employee, with an annual salary of $561,000.
McDavis received the highest pay raise of $15,000, bringing his salary to $480,000 for this academic year. McDavis also received a $90,000 bonus this year, according to a previous Post report.
University employees are receiving higher salaries this academic year, with $76,057 of university revenue going to pay raises for the university’s top 10 highest paid employees.
The Post received a list of the base salaries of OU’s 10 highest paid employees for the 2015-16 academic year as part of a public records request.
Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit saw the highest percent change in pay compared to her salary last year, with a pay increase of 4.4 percent.
Benoit is also the only woman on the top 10 list.
The highest paid dean at the university is Kenneth Johnson, Executive Dean of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Employee compensation is the largest expense within the university’s budget, Chad Mitchell, OU's Budget Director, said in an email.
This expense is paid by all of the university’s revenue sources, Mitchell said. The largest of which is student tuition, according to the university’s 2015-16 Budget Book. Tuition accounts for 43 percent of the university’s revenue sources in the budget for this fiscal year.
Mitchell said the university bases its decisions about pay raises off several factors, including “capital investment needs, programmatic investment needs, cost inflation, student affordability, and available financial resources.”
This year’s budget accounted for a 2 percent overall salary increase pool for OU employees. This is included in the $262.7 million budgeted for employee salaries for the fiscal year.
According to a previous Post report, last year’s top 10 had pay raises totaling more than $330,000, which is considerably more than this year’s total raises.
Mitchell said overall pay raises were lower this year because, as part of OU’s Faculty Compensation Initiative, the previous fiscal year had an overall raise pool of 2.1 percent while this fiscal year’s raise pool was 1.4 percent for faculty.
“Pay raises for employees are one of the most important decisions within the budget process,” Mitchell said. “(Compensation) is also a strategic priority identified by our Board of Trustees.”
Vice President for Finance and Administration Stephen Golding was the only employee on the list not to see a pay raise this year.
OU spokeswoman Katie Quaranta said Golding took his pay increase as deferred compensation to be deposited into his retirement account.
Base pay increases do not include fringe benefits provided to employees, which means their total compensation could be higher than their reported salary, according to a previous Post report. Fringe benefits include cars for personal use, insurance and rings for athletic achievements.
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