See which state employees Florida pays the most and how they compare to their peers
While Florida typically pays the judges and attorneys in its legal system some of the highest salaries in the state, it is Ray Rodrigues and Anastasios Kamoutsas of the Education Department who take home the most money, a Miami Herald analysis of state payroll data found.
The Herald’s reporting shows where taxpayer funds are going when it comes to the roughly 100,000 salaried people Florida employs.
Rodrigues, the chancellor of the state’s university system, makes a little more than $441,000 annually. The former Republican state senator oversees the governance of Florida’s 12 state universities, including the University of Florida in Gainesville and Florida International University in Miami.
Kamoutsas, who was once Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deputy chief of staff, makes roughly $330,000 in his role as the Education Commissioner. DeSantis earns $141,400.
Compared to Florida’s other high-earning workers, Rodrigues and Kamoutsas also make the most relative to the median pay of their departmental colleagues. The median salary of employees under the Education Department is around $51,000.
Jared Perdue, the state’s transportation secretary, is paid a little less than $300,000 — the third highest in the state. The median salary in the transportation department is a little less than $70,000.
The data the Herald analyzed does not include overtime or other incentive pay. The Herald’s analysis also excluded those who are not salaried and do not work standard pay cycles.
The Herald found that the top five highest-paying agencies in the state are the Governor’s Office, the Transportation Department, the Florida Attorney General’s Office, the state court system and the Justice Administration Commission, which provides administrative services to the legal system.
The median salary for employees in these five departments ranges from $66,000 to a little less than $70,000.
The roughly 1,300 salaried employees of the state’s Veterans Affairs Department have a median salary around $40,000 — the lowest in Florida.
This story was originally published May 28, 2026 at 5:30 AM with the headline "See which state employees Florida pays the most and how they compare to their peers."
