Legislators across the country hold the keys to state executive salaries

March 12, 2015

By Nick Katers

Legislators in 41 out of 50 states exert control over salaries for their executive branch colleagues, according to an analysis by Ballotpedia. This analysis looked at constitutional and statutory provisions for state executive salaries in all 50 states with a focus on salaries for governors, lieutenant governors, attorneys general and secretaries of state. The following chart provides the range of salaries for these four positions in 2014:

Salary ranges for top four offices
Governor: $70,000 (Maine) - $187,818 (Pennsylvania) Lieutenant Governor: $7,200 (Texas) - $157,765 (Pennsylvania) Attorney General: $72,408 (Arkansas) - $176,988 (Tennessee) Secretary of State: $54,305 (Arkansas) - $190,260 (Tennessee)

Of the nine states where legislatures do not dictate compensation, three states (Texas, Wisconsin and Wyoming) use hybrid approaches to executive salaries, including state employment boards, ethics boards and mixtures of constitutional and statutory policies. Constitutional amendments in five of the six remaining states (Arizona, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Washington) created commissions to determine executive salaries, while a constitutional amendment in Arkansas ties salaries to the rate of inflation. Salary commissioners are typically selected by the governor, legislative leaders and state court judges.

Quick facts

Here are some examples of how states determine executive salaries:

• Hawaii has used a salary commission since 2006, when Article XVI of the state constitution was amended at the ballot box. The seven-member commission last met in 2012 and approved a 2 percent annual increase in salaries for executive officials between 2014 and 2018.

• The salary for the Governor of Montana is determined by calculating the average salary of the governors in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana based on a salary survey conducted by Montana’s Department of Administration. The adjusted salary is effective July 1 of the year following the survey.

• In Pennsylvania, home of the highest-paid governor and lieutenant governor in the country from 2012 to 2014, statewide officers’ salaries are set by statute and subject to cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) pursuant to Section 3(e) of the Public Official Compensation Law. State legislators use COLA figures from the United States Department of Labor to calculate salaries.

• The Lieutenant Governor of Texas serves as president of the Texas State Senate and is entitled by constitution to a fixed annual salary and a per diem. Functionally a state senator, the lieutenant governor is compensated like a legislator rather than a state executive officer. Created by constitutional amendment, the Texas State Ethics Commission sets the lieutenant governor's per diem and may recommend a higher salary than other state senators. Excluding the per diem, the lieutenant governor’s annual salary has remained at $7,200, the lowest of any lieutenant governor by far, for several years. The Governor of Texas receives a $150,000 annual salary, which regularly ranks among the highest in its nationwide cohort.

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Gubernatorial salary changes

This map shows percentage changes in gubernatorial salaries from 2010 to 2014 combined with a visualization of state approaches to executive salaries. States without percentages are states where governors earned the same salaries in 2014 as they did in 2010. There were 26 states between 2010 and 2014 where gubernatorial salaries changed, with nine decreases and 17 increases during that period.

See also

• Compensation of state executive officers
• Comparison of gubernatorial salaries
• Comparison of lieutenant gubernatorial salaries