A stunning 40 percent of the staff at the state agency that oversees the glitch-plagued, befuddling $69 million Obamacare website earn six-figure salaries, according to payroll numbers obtained by the Herald.

Some 21 of the 53 employees at the Massachusetts Health Connector make more than $100,000 a year, even as Bay Staters struggle to sign up for health care through a website beset by slow speeds and technical difficulties and a call center with frequently long hold times.

Topping the list is Executive Director Jean Yang, who is pulling down $179,243. Chief Operating Officer Roni Mansu earns $178,415, while General Counsel Edward DeAngelo makes $175,621. Chief Information Officer Scott Devonshire makes $164,545, and Director of Business Development David Kerrigan brings in $164,545.

And those figures don’t include fringe benefits.

Former state Inspector General Gregory Sullivan said the tally “appears to be very high” and that Massachusetts should endeavor to compare its salaries with those of other states as they roll out their own connectors to administer Obamacare.

“I think what the public is owed is a straightforward comparison, position-by-position, including the number of positions, of all the states,” Sullivan said. “Certainly these salaries are far in excess of salaries of comparable state employees, no question about that. However, we also have to consider the nature of the job. It’s expensive to hire IT people. But that’s true around the country.”

The Connector has faced blistering criticism over the past few weeks from health insurance customers frantically seeking — and largely failing — to enroll in new plans through the state’s Obamacare site.

A national computer expert who diagnosed the site told the Herald it is bogged down with heavy files and code.

As of last week, 23,894 applicants had completed applications but just 1,062 were enrolled in health plans — an average of about 20 a day.

People have also complained that the site was forcing them to wrongly claim to be prison inmates or mental patients. When they tried to call a help line, they were told they had just won a Caribbean vacation.

But a Health Connector spokesman defended the generous payouts.

The executive director’s salary, for example, has been cut 23 percent since 2008, when it was $231,750, according to a payroll fact sheet emailed to the Herald by Connector spokesman Jason Lefferts, who earns $105,000.

Lefferts declined further comment, but his fact sheet noted that a total of five senior staffers had salaries of $180,000 or more in 2008 — none earn that much today.

Five staffers make more than $150,000 today, down from seven in 2008.

Jack Encarnacao contributed to this report.