Ohio State Salary Data Added to Buckeye Institute Searchable Data Tools

COLUMBUS - The Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions today added a "Higher Ed" searchable data tool to its website, which is the fifth data tool on the website. The new data tool initially includes the 2008 salary data for the 22,968 employees at The Ohio State University. Additional salary data from Ohio's public colleges and universities will be added as the Buckeye Institute obtains the data.

Since the launch of the new website on April 30, 2010, nearly 50,000 visitors from 383 Ohio cities have spent over 5,750 hours on the website doing more than 370,000 searches using the state government salary, K-12 teacher salary, school performance, and lobbyist data tools.

Highlights of the 2008 Ohio State salary data include:

· 1,788, or 8%, of Ohio State's employees made over $100,000 in 2008;
· 244 Ohio State Employees made over $200,000 in 2008;
· 14 Ohio State employees made over $500,000 in 2008, including President Gordon Gee and football Coach Jim Tressel;

Buckeye Institute President Matt A. Mayer noted, "Given the volume of data searches, Ohioans clearly want to know what government workers are making, especially now. The Ohio State salary data is another step in bringing full transparency to Ohio government."

The Higher Ed data tool is available at www.buckeyeinstitute.org.