My current totem pole

A friend of mine, who also happens to be the Assistant Dean of the College of Engineering, brought this cartoon from www.phdcomics.com to my attention on facebook the other day.

The main thing that’s surprising to me is not that Football coaches make over a million dollars, but rather the gross overestimate of Grad Student salaries.  If I made $17,784 right now, I’d be living a lavish life of Qdoba, Spotted Cow, and Tostitos hint of lime chips, instead of El Monterey frozen burritos, PBR, and “badger” chips.  Nonetheless, the graph got me curious.  Here’s my current totem poll at UW-Madison (from the WSJ UW-Madison Salary Database):

  • $91,870 – my band director (who I’ve learned more from than most of my professors)
  • $103,000 – my supervisor
  • $141,707 – my supervisor’s supervisor
  • $164,933 – my department chair
  • $244,525 – college of engineering dean
  • $400,000 – Brett Bielema (bachelor’s degree in marketing)
  • $600,000 – Barry Alvarez

This Post Has One Comment

  1. J. Frederick

    You will actually find that the mens basketball or football coaches are actually the highest paid public workers in many states.

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