Salaries in Colorado’s ObamaCare Insurance Exchange: Half of Employees Earn Over $80,000, Top Fifth Over $100,000
According to the Denver Post: “The exchange also provides a lucrative retirement plan, contributing as much as 10 percent of an employee’s salary for retirement.”
Patty Fontneau, the Executive Director of the exchange, earns “$35,000 to $40,000 more than many of the members of the governor’s Cabinet.”
Currently, most of the money comes from the federal government. But not for long: “Connect for Health Colorado charges a 1.4 percent fee on each policy sold through the exchange. The fee and other revenue sources will begin covering the exchange’s expenses, including salaries, starting next year.”
The article quotes our fellow blogger, Linda Gorman: “This is a bunch of people really responsible for nothing other than getting government grants. These are nice, easy positions from an administration that wanted (the health exchanges) to work.”
The director manages three dozen people and earns $190,549. It sounds like a sweet deal if you can get it!
And marijuana’s legal there too!
Whoever came up with those salaries were smoking something.
Really? Marijuana is a must for the high earners?
“This is a bunch of people really responsible for nothing other than getting government grants. These are nice, easy positions from an administration that wanted (the health exchanges) to work.”
College graduates are struggling with underemployment and then you have people like this with easy jobs and high wages. Sounds like these people hit the jackpot.
“Fontneau requested a bonus and raise from the exchange’s board of directors but withdrew it amid criticism that the exchange hadn’t met its enrollment targets.”
Evidently she doesn’t think she is compensated enough.
“She received a bonus of $18,500 within nine months of being hired in March 2012.”
I guess her giant bonus of $18,500 within her first year wasn’t enough. The federal government is severely overpaying these people.
That’s what happens for government workers. Adequate work equals higher pay and benefits. Too bad the real world doesn’t work that way.
If individuals in Colorado are signing up and the exchanges are working, then perhaps they’ve earned their pay. They were hired to do a specific job, if they succeeded let them reap the benefits.
“The Post looked at executive pay levels for exchanges in three states with metropolitan areas in which the cost of living is close to Denver’s. Two of those states set up their exchanges through state agencies and pay their staff considerably less.”
Then what is different about Colorado that similar states don’t have higher salaries. Unless Colorado is just that much more successful.
Since the exchange program is just a online market which provides options, $80,000 is way too high. That is almost the same as a tenure associate professor earns. This is ridiculous.
Yes, how can a government employee earn as much as a professor in a university?