Where Everyone Is Above Average, Part 3

To put my recent posts [1, 2] regarding executive compensation at Minnesota Public Radio in context, it’s useful to compare their pay to other organizations’ pay.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has just published its newest edition of the Top 100 list for CEO executive compensation at Minnesota’s top companies.  The latest data cover the year 2013.

If MPR were a for-profit company, the Fiscal Year 2013 pay for its current CEO (Jim McTaggart) of $557,014 would rank 68th on the highest-paid private company CEO list.  Not bad for a quasi-governmental agency. 

The FY2013 pay for MPR’s retired CEO (Bill Kling) of $1,086,351 would place him 49^th on the latest private company CEO list.  That puts compensation for MPR CEO’s in the league of companies like Digital River, Christopher & Banks, and Fastenal.  In 2013, Fastenal produced revenue of more than $3.3 billion, with profits of $448 million.  In 2013, Fastenal paid their current CEO a mere $794,761, about $300,000 less than MPR paid its retired CEO.

In fact, Kling’s FY2013 pay exceeds the CEO pay of the sole media company on the Star Tribune Top 100 list (ValueVision).

As it happens, MPR’s parent non-profit, American Public Media Group, ranks only 38^th on the Star Tribune’s list of Minnesota’s largest non-profits (based on 2012 data), with revenue of $110,800,000 (2012 figure).  That revenue figure for public radio works out to less than ¼ of Fastenal’s profit.

With MPR executive pay ranking up there with private company compensation, it should come as no surprise that it also ranks highly against non-profit-sector pay.

McTaggart’s 2012 pay of $494,500 ranked him higher on the list than many non-profit CEO’s running much larger charitable organizations.  In 2012, only 6 non-profit CEO’s in Minnesota ran smaller organizations and got paid more than MPR’s McTaggart.

As the retired MPR CEO, Bill Kling’s total FY2012 compensation of $780,025 would have ranked him as the 16^th highest paid non-profit CEO.  His FY2013 compensation of $1,086,351 would have moved him up to 11^th in the state.  Either figure would have made Kling the top-paid leader of any arts organization that year.

Of the higher paid non-profit CEO’s, all head either health care or educational institutions.

In 2012, current CEO McTaggart earned more than the heads of Carlton College and St. Olaf College and the heads of medical outfits including Fairview Health and Olmsted Medical Center. 

All of which makes a certain amount of sense.  For-profit companies have an obligation to return profits to shareholders.  MPR does not compete for customers, nor does it have shareholders.  Any excess then accrues to senior management in the form of compensation.

Minnesota Public Radio’s website lists no fewer than ten senior executives (c-suite officers and the different ranks of vice president).  These 10 senior executives join the legions of managers, directors, managing directors, and assorted other officers who populate the staff.  As I noted in Part 2, 10 MPR employees make more than $300,000 and 15 more than $200,000 per year.

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