Who earns the most at USC?

Private universities often pay big bucks to keep top administrators; in 2008, 30 presidents at private colleges earned more than $1 million, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Typically, decisions about compensation at private universities aren’t announced to the public, but all private, non-profit universities are required to file forms with the IRS to maintain their tax-exempt statuses. Those forms, the Form 990, contain information about all aspects of a university’s finances, including the salaries of the highest paid executives.

Below is a list of the top 10 earners at USC in fiscal year 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. (Because of filing deadlines and extensions, 990 forms are typically not publicly accessible until a year or two after the reporting year.) The amounts listed describe total compensation, which is the sum of base salary, bonuses and incentives, deferred compensation, other compensation and nontaxable benefits. Administrators’ positions are listed according the job they held in 2009.