This week, trustees of the cash-strapped, taxpayer-funded City University of New York (CUNY) system approved a hefty annual salary as well as the fancypants title of “distinguished professor” for Paul Krugman.
New York City’s public college system pays Krugman $225,000 each year to analyze the vexing problem of income inequality at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Luxembourg Income Study Center, Gawker notes.
Krugman’s $225,000 salary — which is $18,750 per month — does not include his undisclosed earnings from other ventures, the sum of which could be substantial.
The decidedly left-leaning economics professor is also employed by Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs as well as by the London School of Economics. Additionally, he works as a columnist at The New York Times. He has written books, too. His publisher is W. W. Norton & Company.
In 2008, Krugman won a Nobel Prize as well (cash value: roughly $1 million).
The $225,000 annual salary Krugman receives from the public CUNY system to study income inequality places him squarely in the top five percent of all American earners.
The total amount of wealth he derives annually from all of his various income sources is unclear.
Krugman’s estimated net worth was $2.5 million in 2012, according to TheRichest.
In September 2014, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen noted that the bottom 20 percent of America’s households has a median net worth of only $6,400, according to USA Today.
Thus Krugman, who has long criticized substantial wealth inequalities in the United States, has a net worth that is over 39,000 percent of the net worth of the poorest quintile of Americans.
The $225,000 Krugman receives from taxpayer-funded CUNY is 312 percent more than the $54,620 average salary of a plumber in the United States, 453 percent more than the $40,620 salary of an average locksmith and 780 percent higher than the salary of a typical baker. (Figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
Krugman’s financial situation is somewhat similar to — though far better than — the one in which ultra-progressive economist Robert Reich has found himself. Reich (who is actually just a mere law school graduate) raked in an impressive income of $242,613 from the taxpayer-funded University of California. Berkeley in 2013 despite teaching just a single course during one semester of the school year. (RELATED: Robert Reich Sticks It To Poor People With $242,613 Salary For Teaching ONE CLASS This Semester)
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