The NY Times Reports on some nice work, if you can get it. Across some tough budget years, the financial tribulations at NY libraries were not reflected in at least one significant way: the compensation received by some of the institution’s top officers.
The library’s most recent federal tax filing shows that the total compensation for Paul LeClerc, the library’s president and chief executive, had increased to more than $800,000, a jump of more than $221,000 from just a year earlier.
During 2005, the library also hired three officers who were paid substantially more than the people they replaced.
The New York Times called more than a dozen of the library’s other board members about the officers’ compensation. But they either did not return calls or would not comment on the matter. Asked about the compensation, one of the trustees, David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, said, “I’m not going to talk about it.”
NYPL executive salaries
“New York Library Officials’ Pay? Shhh†(Nov. 19, 2006) reveals what we at Local 1930, the New York Public Library Guild, DC 37, AFSCME have always known:
when it comes to compensation for the top officials at the New York Public Library, the sky’s the limit. However, when it comes to raises for our members, we are being nickeled and dimed to death. It’s an outrage.
It is insulting to discover the huge salaries management grants itself at a time when our union is in stalled contract negotiations.
A 2% increase was due us as of August 1, 2006. Compare Dr. LeClerc’s total annual package worth $813,345 to the starting salary for librarians of $37,043 and entry level clerical positions of $21,666.
NYPL officials’ biggest talent appears to be giving themselves big raises with the complicity of a secretive Board. It is unclear if these compensation packages are funded publicly or privately.
Most branches and the Research Libraries are only open 5 days a week. NYPL management, very successful at getting more money for themselves, has failed to get more money for library services and library staff when the city has a surplus of over two billion dollars.
No wonder they’re keeping so quiet.