UCLA coaches, doctors among top paid in UC system

UCLA athletic coaches and physicians occupied the top paid positions in the University of California system last year, earning more than $2 million in annual salary, according to a payroll report released this week.

UCLA head football coach Jim Mora earned $3.5 million in 2014, followed by basketball head coach Steve Alford at $2.7 million. Khalil Tabsh, an obstetrician at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, earned $2.3 million and Ronald Busuttil, a transplant surgeon at the Westwood campus, earned $2.2 million.

The fifth spot went to Cal head football coach Daniel “Sonny” Dykes at $1.8 million. Overall, 28 UC employees last year made more than $1 million in total pay, which includes base salary as well as performance incentives, fees from clinical practice and other extra duties.

UC President Janet Napolitano earned $584,611, including $570,000 in base pay.

According to the report, UC’s total payroll grew to $12.6 billion 2014, a 7.5% increase from the previous year. Much of that increase stemmed from pressure to offer competitive salaries to top hires, especially at medical centers, said UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein.

“Medical enterprises are growing and self-supporting and the vast majority of hires are those who are highly specialized,” Klein said.

The 10 campus UC system has a total workforce of about 200,000, including 103,000 full-time employees as well as part-time student workers and other academic staff.

Those earning $200,000 or more represent about 3% of all employees. Still, compensation for full-time faculty lags behind the market by about 12%, according to the report, and hampers efforts to lure and retain high-performing faculty and staff.

Earlier this month, UC Regents approved 3% pay hikes for 15 high-paid executives, including five campus chancellors.

That followed an announcement by Napolitano that UC would increase the minimum pay for thousands of workers, including those employed through outside contractors, to $15 an hour by 2017 from the statewide rate of $9.

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