{"id":23440,"date":"2025-06-29T03:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T03:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/23440\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T03:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T03:03:14","slug":"retirement-office-employees-outearn-governor-lee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/23440\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement Office employees outearn Governor Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014 A new report reveals that Tennessee\u2019s highest-paid state employees work not in the governor\u2019s office or state agencies, but inside a little-known division tasked with managing the state\u2019s retirement system.<\/p>\n

According to data obtained by FOX 17 News and government watchdog group OpenTheBooks<\/a>, the Tennessee Department of the Treasury\u2019s<\/a> Consolidated Retirement Systems Division, which employs just over 70 people, includes 24 staffers earning more than $200,000 annually \u2014 nearly 30% of its workforce.<\/p>\n

The office manages billions of dollars in state retirement funds \u2014 a mix of taxpayer money and employee contributions set aside for public-sector pensions.<\/p>\n

Leading the payroll is Chief Investment Officer Michael Brakebill<\/a>, who earned $723,000 in 2024, making him the highest-paid state employee in Tennessee. The Director of Real Estate, who oversees property investments within the fund\u2019s portfolio, followed at $447,000.<\/p>\n

By comparison, Gov. Bill Lee\u2019s salary is $224,000, a figure that more than two dozen employees in the retirement division exceeded last year.<\/p>\n

The department defends the salaries as necessary to attract experienced investment professionals who manage high-stakes assets intended to provide long-term financial stability for state workers.<\/p>\n

Still, the numbers are raising eyebrows among transparency advocates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is public money, and the public deserves to know where it\u2019s going,\u201d said OpenTheBooks founder Adam Andrzejewski. \u201cTaxpayers don\u2019t expect bureaucrats to be making Wall Street salaries.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The average salary in the retirement division stands at $167,000, well above the statewide average for state employees.<\/p>\n

Officials say the fund\u2019s strong performance justifies the compensation, but critics argue that public agencies should be held to different standards.<\/p>\n

The data is part of a broader OpenTheBooks initiative to analyze and publish salary information for state and local governments across the country.<\/p>\n

Get reports like this and all the news of the day in Middle Tennessee delivered to your inbox each morning with the FOX 17 News Daily Newsletter<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) \u2014 A new report reveals that Tennessee\u2019s highest-paid state employees work not in the governor\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[64,21239,21240,21244,255,21241,21238,21243,1229,21242,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-23440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-governor-lee","10":"tag-investment-professionals","11":"tag-openthebooks","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-public-sector-pensions","14":"tag-retirement-salaries","15":"tag-taxpayer-money","16":"tag-tennessee","17":"tag-transparency-advocates","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114764434931040012","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}