(WHTM)– More than 1,000 elected officials across Pennsylvania will welcome salary increases in the new year.
Among officials receiving salary increases is Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), who is set to become the highest-paid governor in the country under a 30-year-old law.
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In his end-of-year video, Shapiro proudly talks up success, highlighting that Pennsylvania is now ranked among the best states to live in.
That isn’t the only area in which Pennsylvania ranks highly. In the new year, Pennsylvania will be ranked number one in the nation for how much it pays its governor.
Shapiro’s salary is set to rise from more than $245,000 a year to just under $254,000 a year when the ball drops on New Year’s Eve.
“I don’t have any objective basis to say whether Shapiro’s salary is too high or too low,” said Tim Potts, former spokesperson for House Democrats. “I mean, it would be worth somebody like the National Governors Association doing a study and making recommendations on how much governors should be paid based on, you know, the conditions in their states.”
Potts was there in 1995 when lawmakers passed a bill to automatically increase elected officials’ salaries and tie them to the consumer price index. It’s a 3.3% bump this year.
In addition to Shapiro, the lieutenant governor will receive $7,000 more, and all three row officers will receive $5,000 raises.
All cabinet secretaries are getting raises, but they are not paid equally. Agriculture’s Russ Redding and four others, considered small agency heads, will get $182,785.
The State Police commissioner and five others who lead what are called medium agencies will receive just under $193,000.
Transportation Secretary Mike Carroll and six other large-agency heads will exceed $200,000.
Potts argues that a system where elected officials’ salaries are tied to median incomes in Pennsylvania would be better.
“When the workers do better, they do better,” he said. “When the workers do worse, they do worse. What is wrong with that?”
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