A question for the Bay State’s high-earners drinking deeply from the public well: what exactly do you do to earn your lofty, taxpayer-funded salaries?

As the Herald does its yearly deep dive into the Massachusetts payroll database, the paychecks of those working for public institutions is jarring. Especially when so many who pay those salaries are struggling with affordability across the board.

The University of Massachusetts system accounted for the top 10 highest-paid state employees, with administration and athletics personnel making up the majority of positions.

UMass Amherst Men’s Basketball Coach Frank Martin took the top spot, with $2,180,000 in total take-home pay. Of that, Martin made $925,000 in other pay on top of his $1,250,000 base salary.

Gov. Maura Healey earns $222,185. She runs an entire state. And wherever you stand on Healey’s politics and policies, she is no shirker.

Chancellor of UMass Chan Medical School Dr. Michael Collins wins the silver with a total take-home pay of $1,570,000 in 2025, which included a $1,040,000 base salary and $536,000 in other pay. Collins is the longest-serving chancellor in the history of the UMAss system, first being appointed in 2008 after serving for a year in an interim capacity. With that kind of salary, who’d want to leave?

The bronze medal goes to UMass Head Football Coach Joe Harasymiak, with a salary of $1,410,000 in 2025, including $260,000 in other pay on top of a base salary of $1,150,000.

There are two more million-dollar babies at UMass, but the president isn’t one of them. UMass President Marty Meehan
Meehan brought home $879,454 in total pay on a base pay of $735,621 and $143,833 in other pay in 2025. How frugal.

These stratospheric salaries should stay top of mind as the governor navigates rocky fiscal waters in 2026 in the wake of President Trump’s funding cuts. Healey was planning for this as early as this summer, signing and vetoing about $130 million from a roughly $61 billion state budget.

She also filed a $100 million supplemental spending bill that would give her office expanded emergency budget-cutting powers.

Massachusetts law allows a governor to cut spending during emergencies only within the executive branch if they determine there is not enough money to pay the state’s bills. Healey slashed $375 million in 2024 after the state missed revenue projections for six straight months.

Healey also announced plans to extend an executive branch hiring freeze through fiscal year 2026 and pause salary increases for some employees under her purview.

Hiring freezes, a pause on salary increases. What an idea, and clearly an alien concept to whoever green-lights the exorbitant payouts at UMass. We have written before about the Beltway Bubble, the rarified cocoon on which pols and policy makers operate in DC, cut off from the problems of ordinary citizens.

The top-earning public employees of Massachusetts are in a similar bubble, raking in millions while the state pivots to come up with cash for necessary programs and projects.

With the top 10 highest-paid state employees on its staff, UMass deserves an “F” for fiscal responsibility.

Editorial cartoon by Chip Bok (Creators Syndicate)