Who are SC’s 10 highest-paid agency directors? 5 who got big raises make the list.
Three of South Carolina’s four highest-paid agency heads are women.
A series of hefty pay bumps the Agency Head Salary Commission approved last week for five South Carolina agency heads, three of them women, put all five among the top 10 state agency head wage-earners, according to data from the S.C. Department of Administration.
Transportation Secretary Christy Hall, who had been the state’s second-highest-paid agency director before getting an 18.6% raise last Thursday, is now the best-compensated at $298,000.
Department of Administration Executive Director Marcia Adams, who received a 27% bump, now ranks second among agency heads at $284,679, and Office of Regulatory Staff Executive Director Nanette Edwards, the only director previously not among the top 10 agency head wage-earners, ranks fourth at $265,000 after receiving a nearly 50% pay bump.
The other two agency chiefs who received salary hikes last week — Department of Corrections Director Bryan Stirling and State Fiscal Accountability Authority Executive Director Grant Gillespie — now rank seventh and 10th in salary among state agency heads at $250,000 and $245,000, respectively.
The Agency Head Salary Commission, made up of four House members, four senators, and three appointees of the governor, approved the raises July 1, effective immediately.
Rounding out the top 10 highest paid state agency heads are:
▪ New Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Kerr, who makes $275,000 (third);
▪ Tim Hardee, president of the SC Technical College System, at $259,570 (fifth);
▪ Newly appointed Commerce Secretary Harry Lightsey at $252,000 (sixth)
▪ Department of Mental Health Director Kenneth Rogers at $250,000 (tied for seventh);
▪ Department of Health and Environmental Control Director Edward Simmer at $249,000 (ninth).
House Majority Leader Gary Simrill, R-York, a member of the salary commission, said it approved the raises for agency heads in order to attract and retain top talent in crucial positions.
“Unfortunately we have been behind the curve on salaries in South Carolina,” Simrill said last week. “It’s difficult to hire and retain talent.”
‘Wrong, unfair and corrupt’
Not all lawmakers were pleased with the large pay hikes, which went to agency directors who already were among the best compensated in the state.
Sen. Mia McLeod, D-Richland, who is challenging Gov. Henry McMaster in next year’s governor’s race, expressed her concern about the raises Tuesday.
“$45k-$86k in pay raises tops what some teachers & state employees make annually,” she tweeted.
State Rep. John King, D-York, was even more explicit in his condemnation of the raises for agency directors, calling them “wrong, unfair and corrupt,” given the Legislature’s failure to provide other state employees with raises that outpaced inflation.
“Corruption is the only word that can describe how Gov. McMaster and his Republican bagmen have trampled on the backs of working-class South Carolinians to benefit their cronies,” King said in a statement Thursday. “While our working families struggle to make ends meet, the Republican legislature uses our tax dollars to give their friends quarter-million-dollar salaries. I refuse to sit quietly while my constituents are exploited.”
A spokesman for McMaster called King’s statement ludicrous and uninformed.
“The governor doesn’t vote on or approve raises for agency directors — he was notified of the decisions after last Thursday’s meeting, like everyone else was,” Brian Symmes said Thursday. “But to be clear — the governor believes the members of his cabinet who were discussed in Thursday’s meeting are innovative leaders who bring great value to the state and are worthy of any praise or recognition they receive for their hard work.”
The presidents of Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the Medical University of South Carolina, whose state-paid salaries are approved by the Agency Head Salary Commission, were not included in the ranking because they are not state agency directors in the typical sense.
Had they been included, Clemson President James Clements would have been the state’s highest-paid agency head at $318,781, while University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides and MUSC President David J. Cole would have been tied for second at $312,643.
University administrators often receive substantially more than their state-approved salaries due to contributions from private foundations.
Both Clements and Pastides raked in roughly $1 million in 2019, and were among the nation’s 25 bes-compensated public university executives, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
State salaries database
For those interested in searching the salaries of South Carolina state employees, the Department of Administration maintains a searchable database with the names, positions and salaries of state government employees making $50,000 or more a year in base salary.
The salaries of employees earning less than $50,000 a year are typically available directly from the agency of interest.
Note: Since the Department of Administration’s database was last updated April 9, 2021, its figures do not represent the new agency head salaries approved last week.