Highest paid employees in Iowa

By Sam Vander Forest, [email protected]

Highest paid employees in Iowa

Sam Vander Forest

As the fiscal year 2014 ended, it became clear what the highest-paid department in the state of Iowa was — sports.

The average income for the top 20 highest-paid state employees was nearly $2 million each at roughly $1.87 million, due to the enormous income of University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz.

The top five highest paid state employees are all from athletic departments and are all from either Iowa State University or the University of Iowa. In fact, every employee in the top 20 is from one of those two universities.

The rest of the top 20 is made up of administrators and professors, as well as many medical experts from the University of Iowa’s Children’s Hospital. Check out the chart to see where Iowa’s highest-paid state employees rank. You can see how they’ve risen or fallen over time at thegazette.com or desmoinesregister.com.