Seattle City Light CEO pay is not out of the ordinary
Dec 11, 2017, 5:49 AM
It is often pointed out that Seattle City Light’s CEO is the highest paid employee in the city, far more than even the mayor.
Actually, according to The News Tribune, with a $322,503 annual salary in 2016 ($340,000 reported elsewhere), Seattle City Light CEO Larry Weis was the second-highest paid employee at the city. Fire Battalion Chief Richard Schultz pulled in $360,303.
Pay is a consideration as Mayor Jenny Durkan replaces the utility’s top executive. While a $340,000 annual salary, with an 8 percent bonus, may seem high to many, the price tag for the soon-to-exit CEO is on par with his public utility colleagues. And it’s far below his counterparts in the private sector.
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For example, here are a few public utilities:
- Chelan County PUD General Manager Steve Wright: $345,000 annually, with 1-5 percent payment each year he remains with the utility.
- City of Richland Energy Services Director Bob Hammond: Between $9,287.20-13,932.53 monthly salary (up to $167,190 annually).
- Clark Public Utilities CEO Wayne Nelson: $270,000 annually, with a $400 monthly car allowance
- Snohomish County Public Utility CEO (12th largest public utility in America): $329,600
- Tacoma Public Utilities CEO Bill Gaines (retiring in December): $387,650 annually (highest paid public employee in Pierce County).
If you’re in the market for a utility CEO job, however, private companies are the way to go. The jobs may pay around the same six-figure salary as a public utility, but private CEOs also earn considerable bonuses and other equity to push their pay into the millions.
Private energy companies:
- Avista Corporation CEO Scott Morris (Spokane): $3,773,712 total; $1,883,564 in cash (Morris took home $5.5 million in 2014).
- Eversource Energy CEO James Judge (provides electricity to Massachusetts, Connecticut): $4,566,520 total; $3,159,690 cash.
- Nextera Energy, Inc. CEO James Robo (various areas in United States): $16,086,450 total; $5,032,300 in cash.
- PacifiCorp CEO Sefan Bird (Oregon, Washington, California): $1.1 million total; $338,000 base pay, with $738,784 in bonuses.
- Portland General Electric CEO James Piro (Portland, Ore): $3.2 million; $836,431 base pay with $680,574 in bonuses; $41,517,452 in equity.
- Puget Sound Energy CEO Kimberly Harris (Washington state): $3.8 million; $900,000 base pay with $2,885,301 in bonus incentives.
Seattle city employee pay
Putting the mayor of Seattle aside — with their $175,000 annual salary — Seattle City Light employees accounted for six of the top 10 most highly paid employees at the city in 2016, according to The News Tribune.
- Richard Schultz, Fire Battalion Chief: $360,303
- Larry Weis, Seattle City Light: $322,503
- Ricardo Castro, Fire Captain: $299,019 (base pay is $291,962)
- Michael Yi, City Light: $289,370 (base pay is $113,814)
- Cao Pham, City Light: $279,021 (base pay is $107,522)
- Kathleen O’Toole, Seattle Police Chief (resigning at the end of the year): $273,275
- James Hannigan, City Light: $266,353 (base pay is $129,006)
- James Baggs, City Light: $264,586
- Earl Boyd, City Light: $258,174 (base pay is $103,863)
- James Woodbury, Fire Chief: $254,605 (base pay is $165,908)
Overtime pay is a considerable portion of city employees’ salaries, which is why many of the highest paid Seattle workers took home far beyond their base pay in 2016.
A recent analysis by the Puget Sound Business Journal found that 634 city employees earn more than one-third of their paychecks from overtime. There are 10 workers who get more than half of their pay in overtime, too. Of the 22 city employees who earn more than $100,000 in overtime, 14 work at City Light.