The Alaska Department of Corrections advertises a $10,000 hiring bonus during the 2022 Fourth of July Parade in Juneau. A listing of state employees’ gross pay shows more than half of the top 50 state employees are in public safety.
Public safety positions — either with the state troopers or the Department of Corrections — account for 11 of the top 25 positions and 28 of the top 50. In calendar year 2021, AGDC president Frank Richards received $447,167 in total compensation, making him the state’s highest-paid employee during that period.
When asked why Dr. Stallman was the state’s top gross earner, Betsy Holley, a spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Corrections, said Stallman and the Bethel officer who finished in the top 10 “are paid in accordance with the assigned salary schedules for their job classes, duty stations, applicable collective bargaining agreements and personnel rules.”