Dick Umile, the University of New Hampshire men's hockey coach for nearly two decades, last year collected more than $382,000 in salary and deferred income, tops among all state and University System workers.

Umile, whose 2008 income was three times as much as the governor's, earned a base salary of $196,660 and received $150,000 in deferred compensation from previous years, according to the university. Even without the deferred money, Umile still would rank as the fourth highest-paid.

More than 350 state and University System employees collected more than Gov. John Lynch's $113,537.88 pay in 2008, according to W-2 earnings requested by the New Hampshire Sunday News.

When state government and university salary lists are merged, 96 of the top 100 highest-paid workers came from the university side. A person needed to collect at least $150,126 to rank among the top 100.

UMILE

Reaction to the earnings figures was mixed.

"When you're looking at six-figure salaries for some of those state workers and mandatory raises that are mandated through union contracts, and everyone else is looking at not getting the same raises and looking to make cuts in their own budgets, that does cause frustration," said Michael Biundo, chairman of New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, which is pushing lower spending and taxes through municipal caps.

"If you have any large, large employer, you're going to have some substantial salaries in there, but it's not reflective of the actual state employee worker," said Diana Lacey, first vice president of Local 1984 of the Service Employees International Union.

Information from 2008 earnings also showed:

-- 21 state police troopers made at least $100,000, fueled by private details, overtime and/or cashing out benefits when retiring. Three troopers retired last year, and five others were among the top 16 troopers in detail earnings, according to Assistant Safety Commissioner Earl Sweeney. (See story, below.)

►Complete list of state employee salaries (.pdf format)
►Complete list of University System of NH salaries (.pdf format)
►Overtime and private details a boon to NH state troopers (47)
►Hefty paycheck on the way out the door for budget assistant (6)
►Payday: Which Manchester city employees get the most? (75)

-- 47 judges made at least $130,000. Their pay is set by state law. "You wouldn't want your judge's salary to fluctuate depending on the ruling he or she has issued," said Donald Goodnow, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

-- UNH head football coach Sean McDonnell made $182,404, and UNH men's basketball coach William Herrion earned $160,809.

-- the senior dentist for the Department of Corrections, Karen Anderson, made $104,532.72, while the department's chief pharmacist, Judith LaForest, earned $115,792.55.

State, national averages

Despite the hundreds of six-figure salaries, New Hampshirestate workers, including public university employees, on average ranked 34th on a state-by-state basis in 2007, according to federal figures. Those New Hampshire workers made an average of $40,982 in 2007, nearly $5,000 less than the U.S. average.

Anita Josten, a research analyst at the state's Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau, said New Hampshire doesn't have the same revenue sources, such as a state income and sales tax, that most other states do to fund government.

"So it doesn't come as a huge surprise that we would rank 34th," Josten said.

New Hampshire workers paid by the state also have tended to earn less, on average, than those in the private sector.

In 2007, Granite Staters in the private sector earned an average of $44,331, or $31 less than the national average. That was good enough to rank 14th among the states.

Comparisons of public and private earnings for 2009, however, could look significantly different. Many of New Hampshire's non-university state workers received 5.5 percent raises this month, while many economists were projecting private-sector wages to decline.

Retroactive raises

According to state Administrative Services Commissioner Linda Hodgdon, unclassified workers averaged $79,200 in 2007 and $83,236 in 2008. Classified employees made an average of $39,586 during fiscal year 2007 and $42,504 in 2008.

Unclassified workers include elected officials, those appointed by the governor or Executive Council, the chief executive officer of each department and some deputies, as well as personnel of the University System of New Hampshire, the Pease Development Authority and the N.H. Retirement System.

Many UNH staffers received retroactive raises, boosting their salaries by thousands of dollars.

The minimum salary for a full professor is $86,030 this school year, up from $78,000 two years earlier after the first year's retroactive raise was included, according to Chris Balling, contract administrator for the UNH chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

UNH professors received two 4.75 percent retroactive raises along with a 5 percent raise that began last July. Some merit pay also was included, Balling said.

"We're below the average (professor) salary on a national basis, but not a hell of a lot more," he said. "We used to be a lot worse."

For the current fiscal year, University System salaries total $223.1 million plus $86.1 million in benefits. Salaries compose 29.1 percent of the total USNH expenses of $767.7 million, according to Matt Cookson, the University System's associate vice chancellor for external relations.

HUDDLESTON

"We operate in a highly competitive marketplace, and our success in this marketplace requires us to recruit and retain a highly skilled workforce," Cookson wrote in an e-mail. "At present, and for the foreseeable future, the University System, like all other employers, will be operating in a dramatically changed economic environment. All aspects of compensation will be carefully reviewed and adjustments made as appropriate."

State workers also appear to be holding on to their jobs longer.

Hodgdon said the state had 1,117 job vacancies as of Tuesday, representing an 8.8 percent vacancy rate. During brighter economic times, the rate is around 10 percent.

"I think what you're seeing is probably a slowing of people leaving state government because of the tightening economy," Hodgdon said. "They're staying in jobs they have because there are not openings in the private sector."

Some people close to retirement also might be staying on longer because of "a downturn in the performance of their investments," she said.

Top UNH earners

For Umile, his 2008 earnings included a $7,500 performance bonus based on his team's results and $28,140 in supplemental income to cover television/radio shows, sponsor agreements for apparel and for head coach expenses, according to the university.

Marty Scarano, UNH's director of athletics, said Umile could make more at other schools and promotes both the university and the state.

"He's always working with people as an ambassador for the university," Scarano said. "He's clearly, in a simplistic way, one of the best hockey coaches out there despite what our fans sometimes think."

McDonnell's earnings did include a performance bonus and supplemental income, but Scarano didn't have a dollar figure. Herrion's wages represent his base pay, the athletics director said.

Second overall on the list of top state earners was Mark Huddleston, UNH's president. He earned $303,241.

Third was Donald Sundberg, director of the Nanostructured Polymers Research Center, part of UNH's materials science program. Sundberg's income included $43,920 in supplemental salary from a federal grant and industrial contracts and may also income retirement pay.

Many of the top paid professors are former administrators, including Sundberg, according to Balling. "They inflate the full professor rank," he said.

The current contract calls for the salaries of former administrators who take professor jobs to be no higher than the highest-paid faculty member in that department, Balling said.

Which is better?

Dennis Delay, deputy director for the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy in Concord, said state and private-sector jobs have their pluses.

"Generally, state workers are paid a little bit less for the same types of occupations, but they generally have better benefits than similar occupations," Delay said. "Sometimes, the comparisons are awfully hard to make. It's hard to think of an equivalent of a police or fireman in the private sector in terms of the work that they do."

Lacey made further comparisons.

"Oftentimes, our salaries don't compare with the private sector, but even with New Hampshire municipalities, comparing us in the state with other public sector workers, we don't compare," Lacey said. "We're still 15 to 30 percent behind other public sector workers in New Hampshire."