Who knew acting could be so lucrative?

Half a dozen state commissioners have kept their temporary “acting” titles to circumvent a state law that caps commissioner salaries.

Anthony Annucci pulled down $189,000 in Fiscal Year 2016 as acting commissioner of the state Corrections Department, payroll records show. The head of the prison system’s salary is set at $136,000 per year, according to state law.

Gov. Cuomo nominated the 31-year civil servant in May 2013 to run the agency. But Annucci has never been confirmed by the state Senate. In the year before he took the acting commissioner job, Annucci earned $176,396 as executive deputy commissioner.

He’s not the only state executive who has cashed in on the loophole.

The governor tapped Sheila Poole to run the state Office of Children and Family Services in January 2014 after she’d served as executive deputy commissioner earning $152,642. Instead of taking the legally mandated $136,000 salary, she took the “acting” tile and the $164,195 salary that came with it, FY 2016 records show.

Kerry Delaney, who once served as an attorney to the governor, has led the state Office for People with Developmental Disabilities since June 2014. She had been serving as first deputy commissioner, with a $155,857 salary. She took home $159,569 in FY 2016, rather than the $136,000 pay set by law.

Cuomo nominated former Monroe County DA Michael Green to lead the state Division of Criminal Justice in February 2012 but he has not been confirmed for the top job. State law sets his salary at $127,000 but he pocketed $159,106 in FY 2016, records show. He earned $115,826 as Monroe’s top prosecutor.

Lola Brabham moved from the Department of Labor, where she was a deputy commissioner earning $135,567, to head the state Department of Civil Service in April 2015. State law limits her salary to $120,800 per year, yet she took in $156,863 in FY 2016, records show.

Theresa Egan brought home $167,571 in FY 2016 to run the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The commissioner’s job pays $120,800. Egan had served as deputy commissioner before she was appointed in July 2015, earning $154,700, records show.

Commissioners, like state legislators, have worked without a pay raise for the past 18 years. Cuomo nixed a proposed pay increase in December.

Cuomo has acknowledged commissioner salaries are low, especially when compared with similar positions in New York City.

“We need to raise them in order to attract high-quality candidates,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi. “These acting commissioners are just that until we find the right candidate to nominate.”

Yet advocates say the state should “follow the law” and not keep commissioners in temporary status for years.

“Where’s the integrity? It’s all part of the same dysfunction that defines Albany,” said Citizens Union director Dick Dadey. “It’s laughable but it’s another way to game the system to provide a higher compensation to an agency head.”