University President Michael Schill earned $405,139 in calendar year 2022, according to tax returns filed by Northwestern.
With a $349,855 base salary between September 2022 — when Schill took office — and December 2022, Schill received about one-third as much as his predecessor, who made $1.2 million in base compensation in calendar year 2022.
That figure is on par with the salaries of other presidents of elite private universities. All 10 of the top-ranked private universities on U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best National University Rankings paid their top leaders between $1 million and $2 million in base pay in 2022, barring the University of Pennsylvania, whose former President Liz Magill took over in July 2022 and earned $723,000 in her first year as president.
Former University President Morton Schapiro took home $4.9 million in calendar year 2022, with nearly $1 million in bonuses and incentive compensation as well as about $2.4 million in “other reportable compensation” from the University, making him one of the highest paid presidents of a private university in the county. That number significantly surpassed Schapiro’s $3 million paycheck in 2021, despite the fact that he departed NU in September 2022.
According to NU’s 990, the annual approval process for the compensation of top administrators included a review by an independent committee of the Board and a third-party consultant.
Still, Schapiro was not the highest paid employee of the University in 2022. Former football coach Pat Fitzgerald took that spot for the seventh consecutive year, with $6 million in total compensation. Fitzgerald filed a lawsuit against the University for more than $130 million last year after he was let go by NU following allegations of hazing in the football program during his tenure.
Head Basketball Coach Chris Collins earned about $3.3 million, while former Vice President for Athletics & Recreation Derrick Gragg — who recently transitioned to a newly created athletics advisory role — made $1.4 million.
Ten other University employees took home six figures in 2022, including Vice President Chief Investment Officer Amy Falls, former Vice President of Alumni Relations & Development Bob McQuinn, University Provost Kathleen Hagerty and three faculty members.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on the compensation of administrators.
In a March interview with The Daily, Schill declined to share his salary but characterized it as “a very different situation” as compared to the pay of his predecessor.
That was in response to a January report from the NU Graduate Workers union comparing the pay gap between presidents and graduate workers at NU and other elite universities. Compared to several peer institutions where graduate workers made upwards of $0.02 for every dollar their respective university presidents made, NU graduate workers made just $0.013 per dollar.
NUGW members voted to ratify a new contract in March after months of negotiations with administrators, earning a $21.8% increase in the base stipend for graduate workers, along with other protections and benefits.
The IRS requires nonprofit organizations to report the compensation of certain officers, directors, individual trustees, key employees and highest-compensated employees each year. The 35 employees listed on NU’s 990 filing earned a total of $43.5 million — about 2.6% of the $1.7 billion paid to its more than 26,000 employees in 2022.
Meanwhile, wage growth for full-time faculty members at NU outpaced inflation from 2022 to 2023, in line with national trends, according to data from the American Association of University Professors’ annual Faculty Compensation Survey.
Since 2022, NU’s operating budget margin has decreased, with the University ending 2023 with just $8.6 million left over from an operating budget of over $3 billion, compared to a $138.7 million margin in 2022.
Hagerty told the Faculty Senate in January that the University increased its spending on faculty hiring in 2023, with salaries, wages and benefits making up 55% of its total 2023 operating expenses.
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Related Stories:
— NUGW members ratify contract with Northwestern
— NU CIO Amy Falls addresses Faculty Senate
— NU increases spending on faculty hiring, ends 2023 in the black
