$300K salary makes psychiatrist state’s highest-paid employee

Cracker Barrel manager accused of embezzling $2K
Updated 18 min. ago
Is your “unlimited” data being throttled?
2:32 p.m.
Kasich wants 100 gigabits per second state network, smarter smartphones
2:07 p.m.
Benefit dinner held for girl who died in car accident
2:00 p.m.
Wright-Patterson relatively unscathed in Obama defense budget
1:46 p.m.
> More headlines

By Laura A. Bischoff, Columbus Bureau Updated 10:35 AM Thursday, February 25, 2010

COLUMBUS — Who is the highest-paid state employee? If you guessed Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, you’d be wrong.

The answer is state Department of Mental Health psychiatrist Zinovi Goubar, who grossed $308,617 last year, including $159,870 in pay for covering after-hours at the state psychiatric hospital in Northfield.

Strickland earned $141,708 last year — down $3,123 from 2008.

A combination of layoffs and unpaid furlough days helped the state shave $48 million off its 2009 payroll costs over 2008, a state report released Wednesday, Feb. 24, shows.

The number of employees was also trimmed, from 68,262 in 2008 to 65,781 last year.

On average, state employees made $49,300 last year, compared with $48,225 in 2008.

Some workers made considerably more than that. For example:

• 1,804 workers made more than $100,000 in 2009, compared with 1,767 employees in that category in 2008. Those numbers include elected officials and more than 400 judges.

• 21 state employees made $200,000 or more last year compared with 18 in that club in 2008.

• Three employees, including Goubar, made more than $250,000.

Goubar and the 20 others in the $200,000 club are all psychiatrists or physician specialists in the state Department of Mental Health.

Mental health spokeswoman Trudy Sharp said the state must have a medical officer on duty 24 hours a day at the seven hospitals. Psychiatrists, who are represented by the Service Employees International Union 1199, are paid $60 an hour for after-hours coverage.

Overall, the state spent $3.24 billion on employee pay in 2009, compared with $3.29 billion in 2008.

Share this article