New York University president receives base pay of $1.3 million
By
Katy Kinner
4 September 2018
Recently released tax returns show that New York University (NYU) president Andrew Hamilton’s base pay was $1.3 million in 2016, his first year in that position. An estimate of Hamilton’s total pay—including compensation and bonuses—would be roughly $2 million, placing him tenth on the list for highest-compensated university administrators, directly above The New School University president David Van Zandt.
According to the 2017 US Census, Hamilton’s $1.3 million pay is almost twenty-four times higher than the average New York City annual income of $55,191 and eighty-six times higher than the poverty threshold $15,000 for a single person. His base pay is the second highest of all university presidents in the United States, according to a 2018 list of executive compensation at private and public colleges released by the Chronicle of Higher Education.
While base pay excludes bonuses and other compensation, NYU’s 990 tax return shows that Hamilton receives an additional $250,000 in deferred compensation each year, to be collected after five years, for a sum of $1.25 million. The document also lists a total of $448,914 as a yearly “estimated amount of other compensation from the organization and related organizations.”
Courtesy of NYU, Hamilton lives in a presidential penthouse that was renovated in 2016 with $1.1 million in university funds. Before moving to NYU, Hamilton had claimed a desire to address the affordability of the university. However, as vice chancellor of Oxford in the United Kingdom from 2009-2015, he angered many students by suggesting the need to raise the legal tuition increase above the cap of £9,000 (roughly $10,982).
Hamilton’s immense…