University of Iowa President Wilson gets $50K pay raise

IOWA CITY — After Iowa regents reviewed in closed session Tuesday the performance of their university presidents over the last year, they approved a range of pay increases and new compensation incentives Wednesday — including a raise for University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson.

Beginning July 1, Wilson will earn $700,000 a year — amounting to a $50,000 raise, the second such raise in two years, making her the highest-paid president across the three-campus regent university system. Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen’s salary will stay at $650,000 a year — although both she and Wilson received new deferred compensation incentives.

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On top of the $733,333 deferred compensation payout Wintersteen will receive this summer and the $80,000 payout she’ll get next year, the board established for her a new deferred compensation plan making annual contributions of $415,000 from this July 1 through Dec. 31, 2025 — amounting to $1.04 million.

The board extended Wilson’s existing deferred compensation plan — which was supposed to pay her $2.2 million in 2026 — through 2028, when she’ll get a $2.5 million payout.

Regents also extended both presidents’ contracts.

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University of Iowa employee salaries for fiscal year 2022

Wilson, given a five-year contract when she started in 2021, now has a term of employment through June 30, 2028. Wintersteen, whose 2019 contract was set to expire this summer, received an extension through June 30, 2026.

University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook — whose salary has remained static since his hire in 2016 at $357,110 — on Wednesday received his first raise of $15,000 a year, bringing his annual pay to $372,110. His current contract runs through 2025.

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And the board’s Executive Director Mark Braun — who made $390,336 in the 2022 budget year — on Wednesday received a new deferred compensation plan amounting to a $310,000 payout in 2025.

The board Wednesday also set its salary policy for “merit” employees in the upcoming budget year to a minimum 1 and maximum 2 percent raise. Merit workers include blue collar, clerical and technical workers — like bus drivers, bakers, groundskeepers and hospital security officers.

Earlier this year, the board negotiated new contracts with its graduate student and health care worker unions, including 3 percent base pay raises for each of the next two years.

Among the top 10 highest-paid public university presidents and chancellors in 2021, according to a report in The Chronicle of Higher Education using the most recently available data, were five from the Big Ten Conference. But even at her new salary, UI’s Wilson ranks well below those Big Ten leaders, according to the Chronicle: