By: Ted Dabrowski, John Klingner and Nick Binotti
Nearly 150,000 Illinois government workers and retirees took in more than $100,000 in salaries or pensions in 2023, according to data collected by Wirepoints via FOIA. That’s more than a 50% jump since Open the Books counted 94,000 government members with $100K compensation back in 2018. The list includes active workers and pensioners from all levels of state and local government, with the exception of Illinois’ 650 downstate public safety plans, for which Wirepoints did not obtain individual data.
The teacher category led the list due to the scale of the state’s education system. More than 33,000 active teachers and administrators across the state made more than $100,000, while another nearly 23,000 pensioners took in as much. The state’s universities also had 23,000 active workers and retirees making over $100,000 last year. And it was the same for more than 17,000 current and former state employees.
And as we point out in detail further below, the individual compensation numbers get big, too. Peter Murphy, President and CEO of Illinois’ Association of Park Districts made nearly $468,000. Brad Cole of the Illinois Municipal League took in over $505,000. Kent Custer, Chief Investment Officer at Illinois Police Officers’ Pension Investment Fund, received $333,000. And Brian Townsend at the Village of Schaumburg made $343,000.
Those big compensation numbers are similar to the k-12 superintendent numbers we reported on recently in our piece titled New Trier School District set to produce the next $8 million superintendent pensioner. Take home pay for the top active and retired superintendents ranges from $300,000 to $500,000.
In all, Illinois has more than 100,000 active workers making more than $100,000, while more than 43,000 retirees take in pensions bigger than $100K. Add them all up and they now total more than 149,000, about the population of Rockford, Illinois’ fifth-largest city.
The number of government workers in the $100K-plus club matters because of who benefits and who pays.
Most government employees work under multi-year contracts that include automatic salary and benefit increases. Government retirees get lifetime pensions boosted by automatic cost-of-living (COLA) increases. Other benefits like the ability to cash in unused sick leave for pay or service credit also provides compensation bumps.
Much of that built-in pay and benefits is constitutionally protected. And Amendment 1, known as the “Workers Rights Amendment,” now enshrines public union powers directly into the constitution.
In contrast, ordinary Illinois residents have no such guaranteed benefits and protections, but they’re forced to pay the nation’s highest property taxes, and one of the highest tax burdens overall, to fund those $100,000-plus salaries and pensions.
Illinoisans are already leaving – the combination of high costs and an uncompetitive job market means many simply can’t afford to be here. And as the government’s $100k club grows bigger, it will further stress the finances of ordinary residents whose median earnings (for workers over 18) total just $44,765, and where the average Social Security benefit is less than $23,000.
The heavy hitters
School superintendents dominate the top of K-12 education salaries and pensions in the state. As we noted with soon-to-be-retired New Trier Superintendent Paul Sally, many superintendents will collect more than $8 million in total lifetime benefits during their retirement.
Kevin Nohelty, the current superintendent of Dolton SD 148, receives almost a half million a year to run a school district where just 14% of students can read at grade level and only 6% are proficient in math. If he were to retire tomorrow, Nohelty could expect an annual pension of nearly $300,000 and would receive over $12 million in total lifetime benefits.
Laura Murray, formerly of Homewood-Flossmoor 233 – where just 22% of children are reading proficient – has the 4th-highest annual K-12 pension at over $376,000 a year. Because she retired in her 50’s with a final average salary of $320,000, Murray is in line to collect over $10.2 million in pension benefits – the most of any retired educator in Illinois.
There is one notable non-superintendent on the list. The former union president of the National Education Association teachers union, Reginald Weaver, receives a $356,000 state pension. That’s due to a loophole in the pension code that allowed union leaders to work briefly for the government in order to receive a public pension.
The top ten salaries and pensions in higher education are primarily made up of the doctors who work in university hospital systems. Dr. Enrico Benedetti of the University of Illinois – Chicago is a transplant surgeon with nearly $1 million in compensation. Dr. Malek Massad is a cardiac surgeon making nearly $900,000. Jerry Kruse pulls in $700,000 a year as dean of the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
Those big salaries lead to big pensions. Konstantin Slavin, a 54-year-old neurosurgeon at the University of Illinois – Chicago, draws the state’s largest pension benefit of $715,000 a year. His yearly cola increase alone is $21,500 – about as much as the average Social Security benefit in the U.S. If he lives to age 80, he’ll have received over $30 million in pension benefits from the state.
Two notable non-doctors on the university list are UIUC’s current men’s basketball coach Bradley Underwood, with a salary of nearly $4.2 million, and former U of I athletic director Ronald Guenther, with an annual pension of $402,000. Guenther will collect about $12 million in benefits during his retirement.
When it comes to lawmakers, Gov. J.B. Pritzker does not take a salary, so Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias and Attorney General Kwame Raoul top the lawmaker list with salaries of $192,465 each.
Recently-retired Jesse White tops the retiree list with an annual pension just over $260,000 a year. Despite retiring at age 88, far later than most government workers, White can still expect to collect over $1.3 million in retirement.
Chicago and local
On top of the five state-run pension funds, the City of Chicago and its sister governments have another six pension systems of their own.*
Chicago Public Schools has over 3,000 workers and retirees getting over $100,000 a year. Thomas Gattuso, the principal of Sullivan House High School, tops the salary list at nearly $200,000 a year.
The top CPS pension belongs to Mary McGuire, a former executive for the Chicago Teachers Union. Her $245,000 a year benefits is due to her exploiting the same pension loophole as retired NEA member Reginald Weaver.
You might have expected to see District CEO Pedro Martinez at the top of the list for Chicago Public Schools salaries. However, Chicago Board of Education administrators are members of the Chicago municipal workers pension fund, not the teachers fund.
Martinez tops the municipal fund’s salary list, pulling in $375,000 a year from Chicago taxpayers. Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $216,000 a year puts him in the top ten also.
Meanwhile, the top Chicago municipal pension belongs to yet another beneficiary of the pension loophole for union leaders: Dennis Gannon. His current annual $232,000 pension was boosted when he was hired by the city for a single day then granted an indefinite leave of absence till his retirement at age 50. In all, Gannon can expect to receive over $5 million during his retirement.
The top $237,000 salary of the Chicago Laborer’s Pension Fund belongs to Victor Roa, a Streets and Sanitation worker who also serves as president of the pension fund itself.
And like the municipal fund above, union leaders are the top pension beneficiaries. Liberato Naimoli and James McNally are both former union bosses now getting annual benefits of $243,672 and $168,780, respectively.
The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund manages the pension benefits of most local government workers outside Chicago. It encompasses everything from counties to cities to park districts and much more.
Like with higher education, the top salary list is dominated by medical doctors working in government healthcare, with two notable exceptions. Brad Cole receives over a half-million a year as the head of the Illinois Municipal League – which is basically the lobbying group for Illinois cities. And Peter Murphy gets $468,000 to head the Illinois Association of Park Districts.
The top pensioner list has a much broader list of retired local bureaucrats. Theo Flickinger was another head of the Illinois Association of Park Districts who now receives over $300,000 in pension benefits a year. And William Volk, formerly of the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District, is getting $276,000 a year – which will add up to a total of $5.6 million across his retirement.
APPENDIX
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
These state government pension Unconscionable excesses are and will continue to hold back the future of Illinois and particularly for the least among us. Pay out of these extortions crowds out essential spending needs particularly for law enforcement. You now know a leading reason why more people are leaving Illinois for Well, run states states That offer better schools, safer streets and lower taxes. And that is the point.
Unconscionability and/or unforeseen circumstances can be a basis for voiding or modifying contracts — by courts and perhaps by legislatures. [One legislature may not tie the hands of a future legislature because the right to modify laws is an “essential element of sovereignty.”] Many are increasingly restive about “lawfare,” prosecutorial discretion, and other developments in our conventional rule of law. Of course there isn’t that much that can be done in Illinois today, with legislators and courts who are captive of public unions. And with the federal prohibition on states going bankrupt, there is lots of maneuvering room for Illinois… Read more »
Public sector unions hold the government hostage at every turn and should be forever banned.
Your point of this is what now???
This is criminal and JB Pritzker talks about the Gun Show loop hole and the Pension loop holes is just like organized crime stealing from the public, just disgusting pigs.
The salary level for pensions.should have been capped at the Governors salary decades ago. Unbelievable (but very believable) this was not done. State has knows we were in trouble since at least the early 1990’s. Actually even before. Even in 1970 (when new Constitution was being devised.it was recognized that the pensions were funded at only c. 41% level
You’re right Frank. When they originally passed the pension clause, delegate Green believed that it would induce the GA to fund pensions since they would know that there is no way to the GA to reduce those payments. It didn’t work obviously. They have known for quite some time about the pension situation but have done nothing to make it better. The ILSC actually made that point in their decision that benefits can’t be impaired or diminished. The repercussions of underfunding those pension systems in such an environment have been well-documented and were well-known when the General Assembly enacted the… Read more »
Well Stated!
They had proof 50 years ago that Tier 1 was not affordable. And that was before the numerous enhancements to Tier 1 since then.
The state should’ve created a Tier 2 at that time (a Tier 2 not as punitive as today’s Tier 2). The state most definitely should’ve created another tier in 1990 (again, not as punitive).
Affordable if 4 governors had not deferred payments from pensions as “pension holidays ” and put the money toward the operating budget.
Jim Edgar Enjoying Lavish Lifestyle From Pensions He Supported – Taxpayers United Of America
I have no stomach for ‘establishment/ moderate Republicans’. Yet Edgar and the other moderate Republicans have the hubris to criticize conservatives. Edgar the Sell Out – more phony than a Leftist Democrat or 3 dollar bill. Establishment Republicans want money, Democrats want power.
Edgar loved the illegals if you remember. Thought they should have drivers licenses.
That was George Ryan
Both actually. Ryan was a leading advocate of “pension holidays” into the operating budget.
Still trying to find out if the pension is based on contributions or the 4 highest earning years out of the last 10. If it is the highest earnings than Underwood would start out out at over $2M at 50% or $3M at 75% depending of years worked. If it is based on contributions the 9.58% or so would be close to $393K per year. That figure may not come out of his paycheck since it may be a benefit from the university and part of overall compensation.
Capping the pensionable amount to that of S.S. would help.
It’s based on highest earnings not how much they contributed. I believe Underwood would fall under tier 2 and his pension would be calculated based on highest 8 of last 10 years. I also thought tier 2 pensioners aren’t even vested until they have been employed for 10 years. He has only been there 7 years so he has a few years to go.
Thanks!
When was he hired? If 2010 or before then Teir 1 would apply.
He was hired as the coach of Illinois in 2017. Although, after your question I looked up his coaching history and he served as an assistant coach at Western Illinois in the 90’s so he probably is tier 1. 11 years at Western along with 7 years at Illinois and he is well on his way to pretty nice retirement. All well earned and deserved as those are the benefits the state wanted to offer to its employees.
Looks like Tier 1 to me.
Embedded within the discussion of gross wages is take home pay: the money you have left to pay living expenses after all the payroll deductions. Not all salaries are created equal. The private sector worker making $100,000 has to pay 6.2% of his wages to social security, something most state pension participants do not. That same individual is probably contributing 10% of his wages to their 401(k), and even with an employer match, that won’t keep up with what the pension systems offer. In all likelihood, that person is probably contributing more, a few percentage points greater than their public… Read more »
You bring up a seemingly well hidden fact of many teacher compensation packages namely the District’s picking up of the employee share of the pension contribution. This situation allows School Boards to increase teacher pay without appearing to the public to be increasing teachers pay. To the Boards this is the equivalent of having their cake and eating it too. Ask around and you will find many unaware of the situation meaning for the School Boards and Educators everything is going to plan.
Here in Rockford we have 100% teachers pension pickup but not sure what the % is for the other employees if there is any pickup at all or just a small amount. This has been the case for many years but what I have been saying all along the taxpayers pay the amount owed for the teachers pension pickup for their salaries whatever that may be. It is the exact % most every year but the salaries change. So we taxpayers paid what was owed every year but once the money we paid (via property taxes) left our hands where… Read more »
Local taxpayers paid for the local portion of the costs of educator pensions. The state also covers part of the cost for these pensions. The shortfall is not the local taxpayer’s responsibility but rather the entire state.
Also, it doesn’t matter how much was contributed. These are defined benefit plans not defined contribution. The money is owed regardless of what’s been paid.
Keep apples to apples–the salaries listed include the nearly 10% contribution to the pension system. The districts say that they pay the contributions, but that is just a shell game. The employee is required by law to pay the contribution, so the listed salary includes the contribution. The pension system has its pros and cons. As a pensioner, if I pass away shortly after retirement my pension drops to half for my wife regardless of how much I contributed. No spouse–pension is gone with nothing going to my kids–system wins big! If I move out of the pension system after… Read more »
Yep. If you bail out of the pension system mid-career, your pension is frozen in time. That’s why it’s better to start private then go public than vice versa. But you don’t have to worry about market fluctuations in either direction.
In exchange for not being able to bequeath your pension, you receive a bottomless annuity in which you assume no financial risk. Live until 90, it’s there. Die and your survivor lives ’til 110? It’s smaller, but still there.
That’s not exclusive to public sector employees. Nothing prevents you or anyone else from taking your entire nest egg and purchasing a Life Annuity. Not too many people do that though. Probably because of the reasons that Bob mentioned.
What goes unsaid in the whole bequeathing discussion is that there is nothing preventing a pensioner from not spending their entire pension check. They don’t have to spend that entire $100,000 pension in one calendar year. They could sock away 20% and still live quite well while building a small nest egg to leave to their children/grandchildren or for some other unforeseen expenditure.
Remember, most people living on non-pension plans in retirement are only withdrawing what they need. They’re in theory living paycheck to paycheck in retirement.
“… it’s better to start private then go public than vice versa.”. I think the reverse is the better decision. If your work under an IL public employee pension system is done in your earlier years your eventual pension will depend upon your final salary years at that time since there is no COL salary escalator for the intervening years such as that used in calculating a beginning annual SS retirement benefit. Then, no matter the era of your public employment work your SS benefit is reduced by some % of your public retirement annual salary benefit. But the two-pension… Read more »
Upon rereading your posting here I seem to have interpreted you incorrectly. My response was inadvertently in agreement with you, and I apologize for my incorrect earlier response where I said you were wrong, then went on essentially agreeing with you. Fifteen lashes with a wet noodle for me!
Also, the $100K public teacher salary is based on about 9 months of work per year, compared to 12 months for the private-sector worker. So, to compare apples to apples, the $100K per year teacher salary is equivalent to about $133K per year for a 12-month job. Many private-sector workers at the latter salary are in managerial/supervisory jobs or senior-level professional jobs.
So go into teaching if it’s so lucrative. 100k per year is not that much money anymore. I remember in the 90’s, for many people 50k was a good living and 100k meant you made it. That was over 30 years ago. My guess is many that act like 100k is a lot of money have been out of the work force for a couple of decades.
I know of several recent college grads that have started at the 80k range. A senior level professional teacher that earns in the low six figures shouldn’t be cause for clutching pearls.
I think I’m too old to go back to work, except to be a U.S. President, Senator, or Representative in Congress.
I won’t stop working until I croak. I keep active but at age 72 most of my life is over. Under the best circumstances 72% of my life is over if I live to 100. Realistically 80-85 % of my life is over or more if I live to 85. The big 5 could be in my future at any time which are c) or diabetes. So far bypassed all those hopefully by keeping my nutrient levels at optimum. Vit D/Magnesium/B vitamins (b12) CoQ10/melatonin and trace essential minerals but regardless I am closer to death than I am to birth.
Thankless is the best word to describe your attitude.
Why would I offer you thanks? You’re not offering up thanks for all the hard work performed by public sector workers. You act like they should be grateful to receive the pay you promised them in return for their labor. I don’t offer up thanks to people that pay me money that is owed to me. Do you write a thank you letter when you get a tax refund from the government? Of course not. It’s money that is owed to you and you expect it.
Oh, but that extra $33K money is a non-spendable phantom figure. Nice try: no cigar.
Just sayin’ a 9-month job isn’t the same as a 12-month job, so one shouldn’t try to equate the two jobs without a leveling factor. Also, I don’t smoke, so getting the cigar or not has the same non-effect on me.
Actually the 100k for teachers is based on 12 months of work crammed into about 10 months. I would encourage you to try it if you think it’s easy work not deserving of such high salaries. Your eyes will be opened to the reality of what it takes to be a successful teacher.
I’m beyond my FRA and have no desire to re-enter the full-time work force. Furthermore, as an elderly white male, it seems only a small percentage of school-age kids would be interested in anything I’d have to say. Finally, I never said teaching was an easy job, if you’re good at it.
The Illinois education racket is something to behold. Teachers should be well paid but the govt should also modernize how retirement is handled. Ending pensions for new workers, 401k for them. Adjust retirement age requirements to match modern actuarial reality. This article summarizes how votes are kept captured in a self perpetuating loop.
Some looks legit except for teachers and municipal. Imagine the burden in 5 more years, will it top 200,000 by then? Probably. Then in just ten years – Wow!
Like PDJT, Pritzker does not take a state salary – good.
Greatest generational theft in history, paid for by the young taxpayer for the rest of their lives.
I told you Mark, that the Chinese got off easier than the newborn children of Illinois.
100k is a middle class salary these days. You could make an argument that every position on the 100k earner list deserves a middle class salary. 100k is no longer the standard for ultra comfortable living.
Educators deserve a middle class salary, despite the abysmal performance of the schools. The performance problems are not their fault, and they deserve to collect a comfortable retirement.
Taxpayers, with a median salary of $45k, deserve to be taxed to the hilt to pay educators because of the votes they may or may not have cast. The problems are entirely their fault, and they deserve to pay.
Interesting concepts of who deserves what.
$100k household income is maybe on the lower rung of the upper middle class ….
Definitely not upper middle class. Household income of 100k is still lower class just not in poverty.
You have a really warped idea of how the other half lives if you believe that $100k is lower class. You would be shocked if you knew low-skill hourly wage service industry workers live. They scrimp by on $25 or $30 an hour, in urban areas, and they’re still middle class.
Looks like my post got deleted but you are correct per the 2022 census. Upper-middle class: $94,001 – $153,000
$100 thousand dollars year for not working is a lot of money if you ask me (Starting at age 50).
The average private sector worker is getting $50 thousand a year (starting at age 67).
Most of the public pensioners have only contributed 3% to 5% of the total payout, I call this a great deal.
I would imagine 100k per year in retirement would seem like a lot of money to people that haven’t planned for their retirement.
$100k per year guaranteed is more money in retirement than probably 99% of the world’s population.
True, but so what? Its merely a “fun fact.”
It’s more than a “fun fact” to people who see their property taxes rise exponentially to pay for it. Honestly, do you guys have no idea how you sound to those paying for rather than benefiting from the pensions?
It’s a joke to them. My brother in law laughs about it all the time. He never graduated high school and has no job skills but he’s about to retire with a nice pension. He’s trying to find a way to go on disability (for the third time) until it’s time to retire. He got his job doing campaign work, as he tells me it’s not what you know it’s who you know. Their smugness is off-putting so I skip their comments sometimes. People like us sit around at work thinking about what we can do at work to make… Read more »
Yes, I get the concept here. Anybody who makes more than any responder here is hated and derided. Envy is a sin. Consider a more accepting position if you want personal happiness.
I liked the sayings on the posters on my 1970’s dorm room wall too. But then I graduated to the real world outside of school. And I realized that the motivational lines on those posters weren’t deep or profound. They were just childish psychobabble.
The same argument is made whenever anyone has to pay a bill that was lower last year. “That’s life and I can’t deny it. Many times I thought of cuttin’ out, but my heart just ain’t gonna buy it”.
Per the 2022 census
I would say for Illinois you would use the upper end of these ranges.
Good point. I assume those income brackets take into account all geographic areas in the U.S., including Podunk, IA. So, for the Chicago area, I’d move each category up at least one notch; e.g., middle class becomes at least $94,001- $153,000.
$100k a year also depends on where you are at in life. $100k for a new grad with student loans, 2 kids, a new car and trying to buy a home in an urban area is impossible. But $100k for that same couple with two kids in high school, who already own a home, and have two somewhat newer paid off vehicles, $100k is plenty to live a middle upper class lifestyle. $100k a year for a retired person with a paid off mortgage, paid off vehicles, and no other debt is going to live pretty darn well off $100k… Read more »
The G-O-R-D-A that shall not be named.
Those figures are something like Biden would come up with as an excuse for ever greater tax rates.
Good for them. I’m not going to shame the pensioners and employees for getting what they can. The citizens of Illinois vote, and it’s up to them to decide how they want their money spent.
Will the last person out please turn off the lights.
Illinois isn’t Cuba or China. Just leave.
That is the obvious solution, yet so many that complain remain. Some families have no leader, so all the members just stay to support each other. I’m so glad I never had that mentality.
For some it is not that easy. Some businesses can not be picked up and moved.
Hello Illinois tax paying serfs. Living in illinois is a waste of life. The only way forward is to physically leave while you still have your youth and your sanity.
“Oh Ye Suckers”
Some mistakenly believe it is more honorable to stay and fight. They overlook the fact that the U.S. was designed to allow freedom of movement among the states, so bad states will suffer and good states prosper. Thank God for the wisdom of those who created this country.