650,000 Employees Now in Government Pay App

We’ve pushed the first update of the New Year to The Texas Tribune’s government salary database, which now includes data on more than 650,000 employees from more than 100 entities.

This update refreshes the salaries of more than 20 public agencies and adds 13 new entities — everything from UT's MD Anderson Cancer Center to the University of Texas Medical Branch.

The new entities are Blinn College, Brownsville ISD, Lamar Institute of Technology, Lamar State College Orange, Lamar State College Port Arthur, Lamar University, the city of Laredo, Midwestern State University, the cities of Richardson, Rockwall and Rowlett, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB).

The 22 updated payroll records include Amarillo, Arlington ISD, Bexar County, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, Dallas County, Fort Bend ISD, Garland ISD, Harris County, Highland Park ISD, Katy ISD, Lewisville ISD, North East ISD, Pasadena ISD, Round Rock ISD, San Antonio ISD, StarTran, State of Texas, Tarrant County, Texas State University, Travis County, the University of Houston and the University of Texas San Antonio.

Two new additions (and one removal) led to a small shakeup in the top 25 highest-paid employees currently contained in the database.

UT football coach Mack Brown remains the highest-paid employee at $2,511,667, but with the loss of former UT Defensive Coordinator William Muschamp to the University of Florida, the number of university coaches or athletic directors in the top 25 is down to six. The number of professors and directors in the top 25 grew to 19, all from university hospitals.

Dr. Rod Rohrich, the chairman of the plastic surgery department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, continues to be the highest-paid academic at $1.7 million. With the addition of two new medical centers (the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas Medical Branch), Dr. John Mendelsohn, president of MD Anderson, became the highest-paid university administrator in the database. He makes $1 million.

MD Anderson is also now the fourth-largest entity in the database with 18,183 employees. It trails the state of Texas (152,516), Houston ISD (29,499) and the city of Houston (23,633).

The app's agency page lists the dates that we received the data for each individual entity. We continue to acquire new and updated records from agencies under the Texas Public Information Act.

Please let us know if you have feedback or corrections, or if you’d like us to include another public agency.