These California state workers make over $1 million — and the list of millionaires is growing

Earlier this week, we updated the Bee’s State Worker Salary Database with the 2024 numbers for civil servants and California State University.

The salary data base will be updated again in September, after the University of California system releases its salary information. The UC system is home to the highest-paid state employees; multiple university coaches make over $4 million a year.

The most recent salary data from the State Controller’s Office revealed that the number of million-dollar earning civil servants has increased in recent years. In 2019, three civil servants earned the equivalent of at least $1 million, after adjusting for inflation. In 2023, five civil servants earned over a million.

But last year, nine civil servants crossed the millionaire threshold. Nearly all those high-dollar earners worked for one of two California public pension funds: CalPERS and CalSTRS.

The top-paid civil servant last year was Christopher Ailman, the former chief investment officer for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, who stepped down last year. Ailman made $1.8 million in 2024, which included $612,000 in regular pay and $1.2 million in “other pay,” which can include bonuses.

Two other CalSTRS officials breached the million-dollar mark: CalSTRS CEO Cassandra Lichnock and the new CIO, Scott Chan.

Several investment professionals with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System were similarly compensated. Dan Bienvenue, Arnold Phillips, Anton Orlich and Sarah Corr all made over a million dollars, as did CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost.

Another four CalPERS and CalSRTS employees and one State Compensation Insurance Fund worker barely missed the $1 million mark in 2024, with each earning at least $980,000, according to the controller’s data.

(Another public servant to receive more than a million last year, George Soohoo, is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation dentist who received $1.2 million in a lump sum payment for unused leave credits, according to a CDCR spokesperson.)

While these state employees’ compensation levels are high compared to their fellow civil servants, the salaries for similar positions on Wall Street “are much, much higher,” said Sanford Jacoby, a distinguished research professor of management and public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles, Anderson School of Management.

Jacoby said investment officers and CEOs of public pension funds receive both a base salary and performance pay, which are a product of the size of the fund, the share of assets managed internally and complexity of the portfolio.

CalPERS, the largest public pension fund in the country, has over $500 billion in assets. The stock market’s success in the last five years has resulted in better compensation at public-sector pension funds, Jacoby said in a statement.

Compared to other public pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS officials were not compensated significantly more compared to other public pension funds, Jacoby said. Public pension funds also have to contend with the private sector poaching investment professionals, offering more generous salaries.

Generally speaking, Jacoby said, “There’s a labor market, and if a fund ignores it, there’s a bigger chance it will have more mediocre financial results.”