Is your paycheck recession-proof?

Salary talk strikes a nerve …

No one we interviewed for these stories was willing to disclose his or her own salary.

Discussing pay remains taboo. And in some cases, it’s downright controversial.

A pair of recent media reports about salary elicited harsh reactions and stirred weeks of public dialogue.

When LSU’s Daily Reveille gathered salaries of faculty and staff and posted the data on its Web site, it was the hottest story on campus for weeks. Among Web comments received:

Suffice it to say, this article has all the class we’ve come to expect from other Reveille PLAGIARIZED articles and postings.—I see a trend at this paper

You should look at the salaries in mass communications first before any other area. After all, the Dean controls the student media.—Senior

This is the best thing this paper has ever done. This info Needs to be out there.—Paying student

I am one of many on the list published. I don’t care that people know what I make. Most of the complaints that I have heard about your database is [sic] that you have almost as many names missing as you have on there… Your ignorance is showing… Grow up. And maybe one day you can be a real journalist.—One of many

You REALLY need to work on getting the salary records for the AgCenter and Pennington.—Anonymous

… and triggers reactions

A recent front-page story in The Advocate raised questions about state spending, declaring that thousands of state employees earn more than $70,000 a year.

Problem was it implied that well-paid researchers and administrators at Pennington Biomedical Research Center are a burden to the state.

No so, insisted Director Claude Bouchard. Turns out 73% of all Pennington salaries come from federal grants or other outside sources.

To prove it, Pennington disclosed the salaries and their sources of its ?highest-paid employees.

Claude Bouchard $345,876–2% from state funds

George Bray $329,072–19% from state funds

Donna Ryan $311,121–21% from state funds

Eric Ravussin $269,806–9% from state funds

Timothy Church $269,040–10% from state funds

Abba Kastin $254,598–19% from state funds

William Cefalu $252,037–21% from state funds

Steven Smith $252,000–5% from state funds

Leslie Kozak $239,898–31% from state funds

Frank Greenway $238,342–24% from state funds

‘Find the salary of any state employee’

Under that headline, the New Orleans Times-Picayune recently gathered data about state salaries, allowing visitors to the paper’s Web site, nola.com, to learn the salary for any of the state’s 105,000 employees.

Analyzing that public information, the paper reported that the state has added 3,200 employees since Gov. Bobby Jindal took office, boosting the payroll by $278 million.

Here’s the Web address to search the Picayune’s salary database: http://blog.nola.com/graphics/2009/02/search_for_state_employee_sala.html.

Click here to return to the cover story.