Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will pay Debi Durham a retention bonus of $50,000, giving the director of the state's economic development and housing agencies one of the highest salaries in the governor's new cabinet.

Iowa law sets the governor's salary at $130,000, meaning three Reynolds staffers and six of her newly appointed directors earn more than she does. The Des Moines Register requested the salaries of the nine recently appointed state directors and the 21 new staffers in the governor's office.

"The salaries paid to governor's staff and department directors are what it takes to recruit and retain top talent," said Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett.

With her bonus, Durham's annual salary will rise to $204,300 per year — $50,000 above the state's maximum director pay of $154,300. Iowa's administrative rules allow some employees to earn retention bonuses if they agree to stay on for a certain period of time.

Durham has led the Iowa Economic Development Authority since 2011. In early January, the governor announced that Durham would also take control of the Iowa Finance Authority. The finance agency has been under interim management since its former director was fired for allegedly making multiple sexually inappropriate comments to female staffers last spring.

Durham's new salary represents about a $20,000 bump over what she had been making when she was just running the economic development agency. She told the Register that the state should look at the competitiveness of salaries for all the directors.

“I didn’t do it obviously for the salary, because I could do a lot more in the private sector,” she said. “I believe in the mission.”

Matt Strawn, who will lead the Iowa Lottery, will make the second most of the new directors Reynolds appointed in January. The former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party, with an extensive background in public relations, will earn $189,217.60 annually. Former lottery director Terry Rich, who had directed the lottery for more than a decade, earned $248,908.20 in 2018.

The state is paying three newly appointed directors $148,512: Dan Craig, interim director of the Iowa Department of Corrections; Jeff Franklin, interim director of the Office of the Chief Information Officer; and Adam Humes, director of the Iowa Department of Revenue.

In the governor's office, the top earners include:

Chief of Staff Sara Gongol, who earns $157,019.20

Chief Operations Officer Paul Trombino III, who earns $155,001.60

Chief Counsel Sam Langholz, who earns $134,160.00

The chief of staff pay is a more than $20,000 increase over the pay of Jake Ketzner, a former Reynolds chief of staff. He had a salary of $136,714.76 in 2018, according to the state salary database.

Reynolds created a new position in tapping Trombino as chief operations officer. He was formerly director of the Iowa Department of Transportation under Branstad from 2011 to 2016. He was briefly considered to run the Federal Highway Administration, under President Donald Trump in 2017, but withdrew his name two months after he was nominated, citing family reasons.

State records show Trombino was paid $152,668.80 in 2016 as DOT director.

"Even with the rate of inflation and securing top-tier talent, the governor's office is still operating more efficiently with less cost to the taxpayer than previous administrations," Garrett said.

More:

The Iowa governor's office is one of nation's leanest

Reynolds will spend $1.43 million on annual staff salaries. Including the governor's salary of $130,000 and Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg's $103,212 pay, that number reaches $1.67 million — about 80 percent of the $2,103,954 state appropriation to the governor's office for this fiscal year.

Reynolds has requested an additional $200,000 for additional staff positions in the next fiscal year, according to the Legislative Services Agency's analysis of the governor's budget recommendations.

Garrett did not respond to a question about the request for increased funding.

Iowa has one of the nation's leanest governor's offices: Only seven states in 2018 had the same number or fewer staffers than Iowa did, according to the Council of State Governments Book of the States.

Reynolds is employing 21 staffers in her office this year, similar to the staffing level in governor's offices in surrounding states. Nebraska's governor employed nine staffers in 2018, Missouri had 21, Wisconsin had 34 and Minnesota employed 37, according to the report. Bigger states had larger gubernatorial staffs: The Texas governor employed 277 staffers, New Jersey employed 128 employees and Florida employed 276.

John Norris, a former Democratic candidate for governor who served as chief of staff under former Gov. Tom Vilsack, said he wasn’t surprised by Reynolds’ staff salaries.

"If you want to attract a high level of people to serve in these positions that are of significant responsibility, then you've got to pay them comparably to the private sector," he said.

Norris added that the salaries help offset the long hours involved in the jobs.

"They’re stressful and you want talented people in them," Norris said. "Well, then you have to pay them a competitive salary."

Governor's salary among state's highest, but well behind the very top

At $130,000, Reynolds’ salary ranks 2,926th among all state workers, according to an analysis of the Iowa employee salary database. She earns more than 95.1 percent of the state's 59,865 employees.

The median state employee salary is $52,533. The average state worker salary is $57,423 — that includes high salaries of people like University of Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz, who earns more than $5 million per year.

Reynolds' salary is below the average salary for governors across the country, according to 2017 data from the Council of State Governments. The governor of California earns more than $200,000 a year and the governor of Maine earns $70,000.

Durham will earn more than all but one Iowa agency director: Timothy Orr, adjutant general of the Iowa National Guard earns $213,256.68, according to the governor's office. But about 1,000 state employees earn more than Orr and Durham.

David Roederer, Reynolds’ budget director, said the governor's office has been understaffed as staff departed amid the transition from former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad to Reynolds.

He said it’s common for staffers to make more money than the governor. The governor’s $130,000 salary — which hasn’t changed in more than a decade — is set by Iowa code. The Legislature would need to vote on an increase for Reynolds to make more.

"From my perspective, it's not that the others are so much higher — it’s the fact that the governor’s salary is what it is," he said. "But they know what those salaries are when they run for office."

The Register's Data Visualization Specialist Tim Webber contributed to this story.

Iowa department head salaries

Here are the salaries for all of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds' recently appointed directors:

Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Finance Authority: $204,300, including an annual retention bonus of $50,000

Matt Strawn, director of the Iowa Lottery: $189,217.60

Dan Craig, interim director of the Iowa Department of Corrections: $148,512

Jeff Franklin, interim director of the Office of the Chief Information Officer: $148,512

Adam Humes, director of the Iowa Department of Revenue: $148,512

Joyce Flinn, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: $142,070, including an annual recruitment/retention bonus of $30,000

Stephan Bayens, director of the Iowa Department of Public Safety: $128,890

Chris Kramer, director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs: $105,830.40

Dale Woolery, director of Drug Control Policy: $103,064

Iowa governor's office staff salaries

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds earns $130,000 annually. Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg earns $103,212 annually. Here's how much each staffer in the governor's office earns: