Local News

Here are the highest-paid Massachusetts state employees

UMass school officials top the list.

By Mark Gartsbeyn

January 21, 2021

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Massachusetts’ state payroll was $8.2 billion in 2020 — 2 percent higher than the previous year — according to data from the comptroller, and reported by the Boston Globe.

And as expected, the state’s highest-paid employees largely hail from the University of Massachusetts system.

Michael F. Collins, the chancellor of UMass Medical School, tops the list with an income of $1.1 million. He’s been No. 1 since 2017.

Second place belongs to Terence R. Flotte, the executive deputy chancellor of UMass Medical School and the dean of the School of Medicine. He was the only other person to pull over a million dollars.

No. 3 is Matt McCall, the head basketball coach at UMass Amherst. From 2014 to 2016, that position (then filled by Derek Kellogg) held the top spot.

The rest of the top ten include UMass Medical executive vice chancellors James Glasheen (who left in August) and Mark Klempner, Lowell head hockey coach Norm Bazin and Amherst head football coach Walt Bell, Amherst associate dean Derek Lovley, department chair at UMass Medical Kenneth Rock, and UMass president Marty Meehan.

With a total pay nearing $550,000, the first woman on the list is Lisa Colombo at 12th. She’s an executive vice chancellor at UMass Medical and heads Commonwealth Medicine.

The top non-UMass employee is chief medical examiner Mindy Hull. She made $395,000 and sits at 31st.

Denise Ferdinand, a nurse at UMass Worcester, continued her streak of high overtime pay. She made nearly $350,000 last year, which was mostly overtime.

The highest paid member of the Massachusetts State Police in 2020 is the now-retired lieutenant colonel Richard Ball. He made $327,000, including a buyout of nearly $100,000. Sergeant Michael Fiore and Lieutenant Thomas Fitzgerald also made around that same amount, each earning well over $100,000 in overtime.

UMass claimed the largest part of the state payroll at $1.44 billion, or 17% of the total.