
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 21, 1994                   TAG: 9402210106
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

STATE PAYROLL HAS INEQUALITIES, TOO

Blacks, who made up 25 percent of the state government's work force last year, received only 19 percent of the state's $2.8 billion payroll, and had a median salary $7,500 less than that of whites.

Blacks and women are also largely missing among the highest-paid employees, according to a computer analysis of the 97,272-employee payroll published Sunday in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The highest-paid state employee was Dr. Don Detmer, vice president and provost for health sciences at the University of Virginia. Detmer, who is white, runs the university hospital, the medical school, the nursing school and the library. He also is a vascular surgeon.

His state salary last year was $281,520.

By contrast, the highest-paid woman on the state payroll had a salary last year of $155,200. The highest-paid black: $150,000. Former Gov. Douglas Wilder, who is black, earned $108,000.

Detmer said his state salary wasn't extravagant, pointing out that he attended four years of college, four years of medical school and an eight-year residency program before he had his first full-time job.

Of the 100 highest-paid state employees, two are women, two are black and one is Asian-American.

The computer analysis also showed that:

Blacks make up 24.9 percent (24,223 employees) of the work force but earn 18.9 percent of the payroll.

Last year, blacks earned a median salary of $18,811, compared with $26,274 for whites.

Women earned a median salary of $22,454, $4,411 less than the median salary for men, $26,865.

After the University of Virginia's Detmer, three Virginia Commonwealth professors - all white men - were tied for the second-highest salary on the state payroll last year at $237,732.

Arlethia Perry-Johnson, executive director of news services at Virginia Commonwealth, said President Eugene Trani is committed to hiring and promoting women and minorities.

She also said that underpaid women and minorities are "not indigenous to the university but reflective of society. Take a look at corporate America and I would dare say the numbers are worse."

Gov. George Allen's spokesman, Ken Stroupe, said Allen has demonstrated his commitment to diversity by naming women and minorities to the Cabinet.

Stroupe steered clear of the word that is the bugaboo of Republicans across the country - quotas. "The governor does not support quotas. I think, though, that he has made an effort to seek out diversity of race and diversity of sex," Stroupe said.

Shortly after being sworn in, Allen, whose salary is $110,000 a year, issued an executive order directing the Department of Personnel and Training "to emphasize the recruitment of qualified minorities, women, disabled persons and older Virginians" for state jobs.

by CNB