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By Justin Chandler

Last year, Ryerson president Mohamed Lachemi made 8.4 times more than the average Ryerson grad can expect to make following graduation.

Lachemi, the highest-paid person at Ryerson, made $410,475.04.

Within two years of graduation, the average salary for Ontario university students working full-time is $49,000, according to the Council of Ontario Universities.

“I don’t want to talk about myself, I would just talk about managing a huge organization and I think that the system is very competitive,” Lachemi said when asked what he thinks of the wide discrepancy between his and recent graduates’ salaries. “It’s part of the big picture of making sure you get the right people to manage complex institutions.

“Managing a big organization of 50,000 members including 45,000 students [is not] an easy task to tell you the truth,” he added.”

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne made $208,974 last year. Toronto mayor John Tory was paid $188,529.02.

Nearly 1,200 people at Ryerson made the 2017 Sunshine List, which publishes the salaries of public sector employees who make at least $100,000 annually. There were 131,741 people on the 2017 list.

The Sunshine List was created in 1996—back then $100,000 was equal to about $151,000 today.

Even so, $100,000 is nearly three times the median income in Ontario, which is $34,000, according to Statistics Canada.

Lachemi makes 12 times that amount. Following him, the next highest-paid Ryerson worker last year was Janice Winton, the now-retired vice-president, administration and finance, who made $300,000.04.

CUPE Local 3904 salary guidelines show part-time and sessional contract lecturers at Ryerson earn between roughly $64,000 and $84,000. Those workers have been negotiating for better pay and job security.

As previously reported in The Eyeopener, the union approved a strike mandate then later settled with the university.

See our sunny numbers

What Rye deans got paid in 2017:

Thomas Duever, Dean of Engineering & Architectural Science: $241,500.04

Imogen Coe, Dean of Science: $237,360.34

Pamela Sugiman, Dean of Arts: $223,600.04

Jennifer Mactavish, Dean of Yeates School of Graduate Studies: $221,450.04

Lisa Barnoff, Dean of Community Services: $220,938.67

Charles Falzon, Dean of Faculty of Communication & Design $208.000.04

Marie Bountrogianni, Dean of Chang School: $192,400.04

Avner Levin, Interim Dean of TRSM: $180,686.30

Mohamed Lachemi could buy 241 250 GB iPhone Xs with one year’s salary. Maybe send us one or two?

Mohamed Lachemi makes 738% more than the average Ontario University Grad two years after graduation

96 people at Ryerson with Annual salaries of more than $200,000

1,999 people at Ryerson had an annual salary above $100,000

It would take an eyeopener editor 38 years to earn what Mohamed Lachemi does in one year

With files from Jacob Dubé