The Richmond Times-Dispatch recently obtained salary data for all workers on Virgina’s payroll. Who topped the list of the state’s highest paid employees? Two top investment staffers at the Virginia Retirement System.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
VRS Chief Investment Officer Ronald D. Schmitz tops the list, with $786,596 in cash compensation thanks to a hefty bonus. And former CIO Charles W. Grant, now director of internal asset management, earned $670,811.
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The top pair earned more managing the $66 billion Virginia Retirement System than the top pair of employees for California’s $302 billion state employee retirement system, the largest in the nation. They also took home more than the top two managers in other states with larger portfolios, including Texas, New York and North Carolina.
“We’re basically paying, if you compare it to New York, three times the salary for a fund that is one half of New York’s,” Michael W. Thompson, chairman and president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, said of the top earners. “When you just look at the numbers, you can’t help but wonder why we are special. What puts Virginia in a position to offer that kind of compensation?”
VRS officials say they have a fair compensation package designed to attract and keep the best investors. VRS paid $4.5 million in bonuses to 42 of its investment staff members for exceeding performance benchmarks.
Its investors make far less than they would on Wall Street or working for a private endowment. But that’s true of most government jobs, which in Virginia historically lag behind private business wages. A state Department of Human Resource Management report from December said state workers would need a 21 percent raise on average to make them equal to the private market.
The VRS board aims to pay better than 75 percent of public pensions.
Like most public pension funds, the Virginia Retirement System must manage a delicate balancing act: paying salaries high enough to hire and retain strong talent while taking care to not waste taxpayer money.
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the entity that has oversight over VRS, said concerns about the high compensation totals were “valid.” The Commission will “monitor the situation.”