And the highest paid state employee is likely a college football coach.
That’s very misleading; laws in various states (including Illinois) limit the amount of state money that can be paid to a football coach; the rest comes from privately-funded sources such as athletic foundations, etc. I’m guessing the head coach at Illinois gets no more than $200,000 in state pay; the rest of his seven-figure salary comes from donors.
Typically, the highest-paid state is the individual running the state pension system. Medical school presidents are also high on the list, along with the chancellors of various universities and the state community college system—all at $300K or better. In Virginia, for example, the pension fund administrator is over $600K; the head of UVA’s medical school is north of $400K and the community college head earns about $330K annually.
Nice work if you can get it.