Hamilton's top 10 public salary earners of 2013

Hamilton’s senior healthcare executives once against topped the annual list of the highest-paid public employees in the city.

Released on Tuesday, the province’s so-called “sunshine list,” which details which Ontario public servants who were paid more than $100,000 in the previous year, revealed that outgoing Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) president and CEO Murray Martin took in a bigger haul than any other public earner in the city last year.

Martin, who stepped down from the job earlier this year, topped the list with $695,065.38 and $17,565.06 in taxable benefits. His 2013 salary increased about $48,000 from the year before — an uptick that is roughly equal to the amount the average Ontarian makes in a year. 

• Related: 'Sunshine list' 2014: Ontario's top public earners list released

The top ten was rounded out almost exclusively by top brass in the city’s health industry, including personnel in McMaster University's medical school.

The only exception was Mac president Patrick Deane, who came in at Number Eight with $387,287.20 in salary earnings and $22,999.76 in benefits. 

Former Mohawk College president and Burlington mayor Rob MacIsaac took over the HHS presidency from Martin at the beginning of February. 

Top 10 highest-paid public employees in Hamilton, 2013

1. Murray Martin, president and CEO, Hamilton Health Sciences — $695,065.38 salary, $17,565.06 in taxable benefits
2. Kevin Smith, CEO, St. Joseph's Health System — $647,069.80 salary, $65,730.84 in taxable benefits
3. Salim Yusuf, director, Population Health Research Institute — $613,574.14 salary, $3,135.30 in taxable benefits
4. David Higgins, president, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton — $492,282.80 salary, $9,688.56 in taxable benefits
5. John Kelton, dean and vice-president, McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences — $448,504.40 salary, $10,066.18 in taxable benefits
6. Louise Taylor Green, executive vice-president, corporate affairs and strategy, Hamilton Health Sciences — $437,221.28, salary, $13,384.20 in taxable benefits
7. Patrick Deane, president and vice-chancellor, McMaster University — $387,287.20 salary, $22,999.76 in taxable benefits
8. Rebecca Repa, president, St. Peter’s Hospital — $380,854.58 salary, $13,193.19 in taxable benefits
9. Panju Akbar, deputy chair, clinical programs, McMaster University’s department of medicine, $366,602.15 salary, $174.72 in taxable benefits
10. Gary Chaimovitz, head of service, forensics, Centre for Mountain Health Services, St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton — $363,759.76 salary, $174.72 in taxable benefits

Thousands of public servants in the city earned over $100,000 in 2012. A total of 848 employees of the City of Hamilton made the list, up 30 from the year before.

• Related: 848 city employees made over $100K in 2013

Hundreds of Hamilton healthcare professionals were on the list, including 400 with Hamilton Health Sciences and 235 with St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton.

And hundreds of educators from the city’s big school boards also made six figures last year, including 273 with the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board and 156 with the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board.

But McMaster University was by far the Hamilton organization with the most employees on the “sunshine list.” About 1,035 university staff earned $100,000 or more in 2013, up 2.6 per cent from the year before. 

In comparison, Mohawk College employed only 263 six-figure earners in 2013. 

Nearly 90,000 names on the list Ontario-wide

Ontario Sunshine List was brought in under the Mike Harris-led Progressive Conservative government in 1996. At the time, Harris said it served as an important check on the public payroll.

The Public Salary Disclosure Act requires organizations that receive public funding from the Province of Ontario to disclose annually the names, positions, salaries and total taxable benefits of employees paid $100,000 or more in a calendar year.

Each year the list gets longer — there were 88,412 names on last year's list — raising calls that the $100,000 benchmark should be raised. The list includes everyone from police, to school board administers, to hospital executives and municipal employees.

The act applies to organizations such as the Government of Ontario, Crown agencies, municipalities, hospitals, public health boards, school boards, universities, colleges, Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation, and other public sector employers who receive a significant level of funding from the provincial government.

Since then there have been calls to raise the $100,000 salary threshold.

The Sunshine List also lays bare the salaries of the province's top bureaucrats. The heads of large provincial bodies such as Ontario Power Generation and Ontario Hydro often top the list.