Government Pay Update Completes UT System

Today we have a special update to the Tribune's government employee salary database, adding recently acquired salary data from the last six agencies missing from the the University of Texas System, Texas Woman's University and the Sabine River Authority.

This update brings the total number of entities to 137, with salary data for more than 667,000 public employees. The database now has every entity in the University of Texas, Texas A&M, University of North Texas and Texas State systems. We expect to complete the University of Houston and Texas Tech systems and request the last two independent universities (Stephen F. Austin University and Texas Southern University) soon.

The eight new entities are: Sabine River Authority, Texas Woman's University, the University of Texas at Dallas, the University of Texas at Brownsville, the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, the University of Texas-Pan American, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin and the University of Texas at Tyler.

The updated payroll records include Texas Tech University, the Texas Tech University System, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the University of Texas System, the University of Texas at Arlington, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Other than Scott Ransom (No. 15, $905,042), president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center, members of the UT System dominate the top 25 highest-paid employees list.

The price of admission in the top 25 club has risen to above $700,000, pushing out the lone Texas A&M representative, Athletic Director Clarence Byrne ($690,000). Coincidentally, he was replaced by the Darrell Dodds (No. 25, $705,269), the athletic director at the University of Texas.

Mack Brown (No. 1, $5,166,667) is still at the top of the list, his salary again adjusted to include performance bonuses. (In the previous update, these were excluded.) Gail Goestenkors (#6, $1,060,000), head coach of women's basketball at UT, moved into the top 10. Goestenkors continues to be the only female representative in the top 25. UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa's (No. 21, $750,000) addition makes him the only university system representative on the list.

Please note that the data in the database reflect the state of each entity at the time of our requests under the Texas Public Information Act and should be considered a snapshot. The app's agency page lists the dates that we received the data for each individual entity.

Let us know if you have feedback or corrections, or if you’d like us to include a particular public agency in a future update.

Note: The data received from the University of Texas at Dallas lacked employee hire dates. The decision was made to go forward with including UT Dallas in the push with this field missing. We are in contact with the university and hope to have the hire dates added soon.