The State Controller’s Office released 2018 payroll data for the UC system, California Community College districts and superior courts on Tuesday.
The 2018 data includes nearly $21.42 billion in wages, distributed between 449,358 positions. For context, 306,007 of those employees work for the 11 UC institutions, according to a press release from California State Controller Betty Yee.
The top five highest-paid employees on UC Berkeley’s list are coaches, with salaries ranging from $650,000 to $3,003,362. The chancellor’s total wages for 2018 were $538,588.
In response to this information, Cal Athletics spokesperson Herb Benenson explained that Cal Athletics offers contracts that account for the value and experience of their employees, keeping them competitive with other athletic conferences.
“Having a winning football program is important for our student-athletes, our team, our department, our university and our entire campus community,” Benenson said in an email. “It is essential that we invest in our football program.”
Across the UC system, lecturers have a median salary of $19,900. At UC Berkeley, they teach about 40 percent of the student credit hours, and many work park-time, which leaves 35 percent lacking health insurance and retirement plan eligibility, according to Joanna Reed, University Council-American Federation of Teachers Local 1474 co-chair and campus continuing lecturer in sociology.
Lecturers are in contract negotiations and plan to ask for pay increases that “recognize our important contribution to the university’s undergraduate teaching mission,” Reed said in an email.
California jobs supported by UC operations total 430,000, or one in 46, making the UC system the third largest employer in the state. Those jobs contribute to the economic impact of UC activities, which totaled $46.3 billion, according to a UC Office of the President, or UCOP, fact sheet released in March.
“UC competes in many different labor markets for personnel – faculty, physicians, nurses, technology experts, administrative staff, investment professionals and others – and prevailing practices in each market dictate employee compensation,” said UCOP spokesperson Stett Holbrook in an email.
The data from the report was voluntarily submitted by the UC sytem to the state, according to the press release.
The payroll information is posted on the Government Compensation in California website, which offers data from 2013 to 2018. Total wages for UC Berkeley specifically have increased over the last five years — currently average wages are at $36,189 and average retirement and health contributions are $5,985.
Compared to the other undergraduate UC campuses, however, the average wages at UC Berkeley rank fifth. UCLA ranks at the top of the list with an average wage of $55,306, while UC Santa Cruz is at the bottom with $28,188.
