Gutmann sees 4% pay raise

According to the University’s most recent IRS 990 form, Penn President Amy Gutmann brought home a total compensation of $1,367,004 in calendar year 2008 — about $500,000 more than her base compensation of $859,857.

This represents approximately a 4-percent increase from last year’s base compensation, which was $825,000.

For the first time, the executive compensation section on the IRS 990 form covers calendar years instead of fiscal years, which last from July to June — so this year’s 990 form represents a hybrid of Fiscal Years 2008 and 2009, according to Board of Trustees Chairman David Cohen. As a result, he explained, comparison with past years’ salaries is “like apples to oranges.”

However, Gutmann’s salary this year falls within the range of other Ivy presidents. While Harvard’s president Drew G. Faust received $822,011 in total compensation and benefits in 2008 according to the Harvard Crimson, the Yale Daily News reported that Yale President Richard Levin’s made over $1 million last year.

For the second year in a row, Penn’s highest-paid employees were Arthur Rubenstein, Dean of the School of Medicine and the Health Systems Executive Vice President, and Ralph Muller Health System Chief Executive Officer, both of whose total compensation packages exceeded $2 million.

University spokeswoman Lori Doyle confirmed that President Gutmann and the officers of the University did not receive any base-pay increase for the 2010 fiscal year, following a pledge Gutmann made in a University-wide e-mail in December 2008 about Penn’s financial condition. Salary numbers for the second half of 2010 will be made public next year.

The University President’s salary is determined in part by an employment agreement and in party by the Trustees Compensation Committee, according to Cohen. The committee makes a recommendation based on market competitiveness, the compensations of presidents at comparable schools and a self-evaluation from the president.

“The trustees are very pleased with Penn’s direction and momentum under President Gutmann’s leadership. We believe she is the best university president in the country and should be paid accordingly,” Cohen wrote in an e-mail regarding Gutmann’s pay increase.

Cohen cited the closing on Penn’s purchase of the U.S. Postal lands, which “marks the largest expansion of Penn’s campus since it moved to this side of the Schuylkill,” the Making History Campaign, and the implementation of the no-loan program, “boldest financial aid initiative in Penn’s history,” as factors reflecting Gutmann’s positive performance resulting in a pay increase.

This article was updated from its original version to clarify the change in the IRS 990 form’s executive compensation section.

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