Deciding how much to pay coaches and administrators at the University of Missouri is a balance of market and political considerations, Board of Curators Chairwoman Pam Henrickson said Tuesday.

The university employs four coaches, two medical administrators and six faculty, all on the Columbia campus, who are paid more for their services than the $530,000 salary promised to incoming UM System President Mun Choi. The university has lost good administrators recently to other schools able to pay much higher salaries, Henrickson said.

The curators must react to that issue while remaining sensitive to the political criticism of six-figure paychecks, she said.

�That is the problem that we have and the constant tension,� Henrickson said. �You�ve got all these state employees and the governor over here saying you can�t pay those kinds of salaries. Well, they also don�t want us to be hiring people, you know, from northwest Arkansas to come in and run our university, so you�ve got to be competitive.�

The top earner is football head Coach Barry Odom, who receives $2.35 million from an official salary of $450,000 and nonsalary payments guaranteed at $1.9 million annually. Next is head basketball Coach Kim Anderson, whose salary is $300,000 per year with $692,000 in nonsalary payments.

The highest-paid administrator is Mitch Wasden, who receives $625,000 as CEO of MU Healthcare. The top official salary is $700,000 to Tiger football offensive coordinator Josh Heupel.

The university released its salary database to the Tribune under a Sunshine Law request. The list only includes actual salary payments and does not include deferred compensation, housing or car allowances.

Sixteen university employees are paid more than interim UM System President Mike Middleton, who receives $477,544 annually, and 16 employees on the Columbia campus are paid more than interim MU Chancellor Hank Foley, who receives $459,000 per year. The highest paid employees on the Rolla and St. Louis campuses are the chancellors, Cheryl Schrader at $334,950 and Thomas George at $319,802, respectively.

On the UMKC campus, six employees are paid more than the $305,409 paid to Chancellor Leo Morton. The top salary is $520,238, paid to Steven Kanter, dean of the School of Medicine.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday in St. Louis, Choi said he is unconcerned about who is paid more than he is.

�My goal is not to compare my salary to the individuals who work at the university but to understand what are the market values and pay the appropriate rates to attract talent that we need to operate a major $3.2 billion enterprise,� Choi said.

The issues at the university are no different than the issues facing other public employers, Henrickson said. The state pays some department directors more than the governor, she noted. Gov. Jay Nixon earned $133,820 in 2015.

�It is a market issue,� Henrickson said. �Where am I going to find a football coach who is going to work for $150,000 a year? If you find me one, call me.�

Two men listed in the top 50 university salaries resigned from their jobs after the Concerned Student 1950 protests in 2015. Former Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin is 41st, with a paycheck of $379,250, and former head football Coach Gary Pinkel is 49th, with a salary of $350,000. Loftin resigned Nov. 9, 2015, while Pinkel quit a few days later, citing a cancer diagnosis as the reason for his departure.

Loftin is being paid as a professor and as an administrator. Pinkel is working as a fundraiser for the Intercollegiate Athletics Department.

Choi�s salary is based on the market, Henrickson said. Choi received a $58,320 raise from his salary as provost at University of Connecticut. The curators will consider whether Foley�s salary is a market rate as it seeks a permanent chancellor, Henrickson said.

�We work really hard at keeping track of the market,� she said. �We don�t try to be at the top of it, but if you want the best you have to be competitive.�