Justin Fox, Columnist

Public Universities Underpay Their Presidents

They have to placate tight-fisted lawmakers.

June 8, 2015 at 8:47 PM UTC

Corrected

June 9, 2015 at 3:40 PM UTC

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business, economics and other topics involving charts. A former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”

No skimping on pay for the president here.
Photographer: Enzo Figueres/Gittey Images

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A couple of weeks ago, Yale University filed a federal tax return showing that Richard C. Levin received an $8.5 million payout when he retired in 2013 after two decades as the university’s president. On Monday, the Chronicle of Higher Education released its new rankings of presidential salaries at public universities.

From these two data sources one can learn that Levin made more money in 2013 (the lump sum plus other compensation of $1.15 million) than the 10 highest-paid public university presidents and chancellors combined did in fiscal 2014.