These are the highest paid Kansas state employees. One made over $1.5 million
Your Kansas tax dollars pay for salaries of state employees, from university chancellors and aerospace researchers to prison guards and custodians. But who makes the most?
In Kansas, 5,518 state employees were paid over $100,000 a year from July 2024 through June 2025. There are more than 43,000 people on the state payroll.
Governments are required by law to share how much they pay their employees. Kansas publishes salary information on the state’s transparency portal.
Some well-known names are missing from the list — including collegiate coaches like Bill Self, Jerome Tang and Lance Leipold. At Kansas State, for example, coaches are paid by K-State Athletics, Inc., which is a separate entity and does not receive taxpayer funding, according to Kenny Lannou, a spokesperson for K-State Athletics. Lannou said that each university funds their athletic programs differently.
Municipal, county and federal officials are also not included. This is because they are paid by city, county or federal budgets.
Kansas lawmakers — including the governor, secretary of state, attorney general and legislators — received a pay raise in January 2025. Officials argued higher pay would allow more younger people, women and minorities to serve.
Kansas state senators and representatives received a base pay of $58,000 a year starting in January 2025. This is an increase from the previous salary of $30,000 in 2024.
Here are how much top government officials were paid in fiscal year 2025, which ran from July 2024 through June 2025:
- David Toland, lieutenant governor and secretary of commerce: $236,079
- Marla Luckert, Supreme Court chief justice: $198,514
- Laura Kelly, governor: $138,215
- Kris Kobach, attorney general: $129,650
- Scott Schwab, secretary of state: $118,576
Some Kansas employees racked up a lot of overtime pay. Four corrections officers at Lansing Correctional Facility and the Kansas Juvenile Corrections Complex earned more than $100,000 in overtime pay in fiscal year 2025. Employees of the state hospital, highway patrol and other jails and prisons also took home significant overtime pay.
Kansas’ highest paid employees included leaders of universities, medicine and science professors, and employees of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University.
Here are the 10 highest paid Kansas employees in fiscal year 2025:
- Travis C. Goff, athletics director, University of Kansas: $1,546,269
- John S. Tomblin, executive vice president for research and industry, Wichita State University: $1,153,028
- Gene F. Taylor, director of athletics, Kansas State University: $925,000
- Doug A. Girod, chancellor, University of Kansas: $906,227
- Akinlolu O. Ojo, executive dean, University of Kansas School of Medicine: $778,994
- Richard H. Linton, president, Kansas State University: $713,000
- Waruna P. Seneviratne, NIAR director of research/senior research scientist, Wichita State University: $663,520
- Gerardo Olivares, senior research scientist/director, Wichita State University: $640,640
- Richard D. Muma, president, Wichita State University: $610,000
- David W. Vranicar, senior vice chancellor and chief operating officer, University of Kansas Medical Center: $577,484
The full searchable database shows more than 5,000 Kansas employees paid over $100,000 in fiscal year 2025.
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
