Dear Joe Dear: What Do You Make at CalPERS?
The buttons have been hot in California during the frustratingly slow economic recovery, especially on the issue of public pensioners getting more than $100,000 per year in retirement. Even though six-digit pensions go to about two percent of California public sector retirees, the message, it seems, is that those working for the state should not get large pensions, or salaries, no matter what talents or responsibilities they bring to their jobs. So, what about the guy who manages the $232 billion pension fund? Joe Dear, who oversees investments for the California Public Employees’ Retirement System was paid $548,142 in 2010, according to new salary disclosures released Tuesday by California’s comptroller, John Chiang. That made him the sixth highest-paid person on the California payroll. Dear's 2010 salary would greatly exceed that of Gov. Jerry Brown, who will earn $173,986 in 2011, according to the California Citizens Compensation Commission. That, by the way, makes Brown the seventh-highest paid governor in the country. (Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn't accept a salary in 2010.)
