Top earners on state’s payroll rake in more than $1 million each
Fifteen employees on the state’s payroll earned more than $1 million in the last fiscal year, and 121 earned more than $500,000, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of data from Georgia’s Department of Audits and Accounts.
More than half the employees who earned over $1 million are football and basketball coaches at the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. The rest are doctors and leaders at universities, the Georgia Ports Authority and the Teachers Retirement System.
University of Georgia head football coach Kirby Smart remains the highest earner for the seventh year in a row. The latest salary data shows he earned $12.2 million in the 2024 fiscal year. This is actually a decrease in his salary, which the site lists as about $13.3 million in the 2023 fiscal year. Smart, who has led the Bulldogs to two national championships, was the top paid coach in the nation in 2024, according to Sports Illustrated.
The University of Georgia’s head men’s basketball coach Michael White has the second highest state salary, with about $3.6 million last fiscal year, a raise from his $3.4 million salary the year before. He is followed by Georgia Tech’s head football coach Brent Key, who received almost $3 million in pay, a $1 million increase from last year. The boost is likely because he was interim head coach for part of the fiscal year before becoming the official head coach.
Women’s basketball coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson is a new addition to the list of coaches earning over $1 million. In the 2023 fiscal year, she earned about $992,000, but that increased to just over $1 million by the 2024 fiscal year.
The high share of top salaries among coaches is not surprising, given that sports generate huge revenue for these universities. Schools also have to compete with other states for coaches, said Ross Rubenstein, a professor at Georgia State University whose research focuses on public finance and education policy.
“If you take somebody like Kirby Smart who’s been incredibly successful, there’s schools all over the country who would do whatever it takes to get him to come work for them,” he said. “The best way to retain employees like that is through high salaries.”
But only a fraction of the half a million state employees earn this much money.
Georgia’s teachers had an average salary of about $64,000 in 2024 according to the National Education Association.
Rank-and-file workers like teachers and law enforcement received raises ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 last year. Gov. Brian Kemp’s salary was about $182,000 and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones had a salary of about $99,000, according to the website.
