While Ohio has roughly 7,000 fewer state employees now than when Gov. John Kasich took office in 2011, other aspects of the non-university payroll have changed little.

In 2010, female state workers made, on average, about $3,700 less a year than their male counterparts, regardless of job classification. The gap had shrunk to only about $3,400 by 2018, Kasich's final year in office.

The average pay for Asian employees topped that of whites by nearly $17,000 in 2010, from just over $15,000 last year — again, not taking into account differing jobs.

And psychiatrist Zinovi Goubar again topped the state payroll — the first of nine straight years he made more than any of the other 50,000-plus workers.

But Goubar's pay certainly has changed — a lot.

In 2010, he received $318,000. By 2018, he became the state of Ohio's first $600,000 man, making more than $651,000.

Taking advantage of special provisions in the union contract, Goubar got nearly $372,000 for overtime, a state payroll database obtained annually by The Dispatch shows. Goubar, paid a base rate of about $110 an hour, earned $590,000 in 2017 to become the first state worker to top half-a-million dollars a year.

In fact, 21 of the top 22 earners worked for the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Virtually all of these $255,000-and-up employees got “on duty” pay while working for state mental hospitals under the collective bargaining agreement with Service Employees International Union local 1199. The only one of the top 22 outside the mental health agency was Andrew Eddy, a physician administrator for the state prison system who made $299,000.

With only one exception — state schools superintendent Paolo DeMaria at 89th with $206,838 in earnings — all 97 of the highest wage earners were psychiatrists and physicians.

The database does not include higher education institutions — so no college presidents or football coaches — nor employees of JobsOhio, the state's privatized economic-development agency whose president made more than $620,000.

Kasich, whose pay like that of other elected officials is set by state law, ranked a modest 281st on the payroll list of 59,086 who got income from state government last year. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor was the highest-paid elected official at $182,097, followed by the other six justices at $171,397 each.

The average pay of state employees increased $1,509 or 2.8 percent to $55,670 last year, according to Department of Administrative Services. The average Ohioan made $52,260 last year, federal statistics show — about 7 percent less than the typical state worker.

Ten state employees made more than $300,000 in 2018, compared to eight the year before. A total of 100 made more than $200,000 last year, verses 97 in 2017. And 5,089 earned more than $100,000 — an increase of 796 or 19 percent from 2017, when 4,293 reached six figures.

In 2010, the year before Kasich became governor, only one state employee (Goubar) topped the $300,000 mark, 28 made more than $200,000 and 1,855 grossed more than $100,000.

A total of 422 workers made more than $25,000 in overtime in 2018. Another 3,185 received between $10,000 and $25,000 in overtime compensation. The overtime paid to state employees reached an all-time high, in recent years at least, totaling nearly $134.8 million — an increase of $8 million or 6 percent over 2017.

Most unionized state employees are receiving pay raises totaling 8.7 percent over three years under their contract, with the first 2.75-percent raise granted on July 1, 2018 and the second to follow this coming July 1. Unionized workers will receive a 3-percent raise in 2020.

The number of state employees dropped by 6,911 or 12 percent to 51,393 during Kasich's eight years in office, Department of Administrative Services says. The agency with the most employees — the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction — lost 1,177 positions, or 9 percent of its workforce, while the state prison population declined 3 percent.

The average pay gap between white and black state workers actually increased from about $3,600 a year to about $5,100 from 2010 to 2018. The difference in annual wages between white and Hispanic state employees was only $666 in 2010, but in eight years increased to nearly $4,000 on average.

drowland@dispatch.com

@darreldrowland

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow