Psychiatrists are highest paid Minnesota state employees

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Minnesota's highest-paid state government employees are psychiatrists. State payroll data shows that two state-employed psychiatrists each earned more than $500,000 in 2021.

More than 59,000 people work for various state agencies, boards, Minnesota State colleges and universities and the court system.

Payroll data does not include University of Minnesota staff.

The median pay for the 19 psychiatrists listed as full-time state employees last year was about $345,000.

Fourteen of the 20 state workers who earned the most money in 2021 were psychiatrists. A decade earlier, five of the 20 top-paid staff worked in mental and behavioral health centers.