President pro tempore Neil Bose was the highest paid employee at Memorial this past year earning a total of $406,300. For comparison with other leaders in the public sector, the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, is currently paid $400,000 per year, and NL Premier Andrew Furey makes $160,525. However, in comparison with the top 10 paid university presidents in Ontario, Bose would be number ten.
Last month, salaries and compensation for MUN employees earning over $100,000 were released through the provincial Government’s annual Sunshine List. 1,181 MUN employees have made the list, with an average compensation of $135,065.05, and a total of $161,132,600.
One individual was granted exemption on the basis that the disclosure of their compensation could “threaten the safety, or mental or physical health of that employee.”
In the interest of students and the broader public, the Muse has collected the top figures from this list and ranked the highest salaries.
Base Salary includes the minimum agreed amount which is paid to an individual at Memorial. Total salary includes other payments received from MUN such as overtime, bonuses, and retroactive pay. It excludes other compensation that comes from Eastern Health for clinical work, or other outside funding.
Top 25 Highest Paid Employees at MUN
| Employee Name: | Campus: | Job Title: | Base Salary: | Total: |
| 1. Neil Bose | St. John’s | President | $353,700 | $406,200 |
| 2. Margaret Steele | Medicine | Full Professor | $324,700 | $337,700 |
| 3. Raymond Gosine | St. John’s | Associate Vice-President | $291,400 | $302,800 |
| 4. Jeffrey Pittman | St. John’s | Full Professor | $274,200 | $283,300 |
| 5. Ian Sutherland | Grenfell | Vice-President (Grenfell) | $263,700 | $263,700 |
| 6. Lisa Browne | St. John’s | Vice-President (Administration, Finance & Advancement) | $247,000 | $250,500 |
| 7. Donna Hardy Cox | St. John’s | Associate Vice-President (Academic) & Dean of Students | $238,800 | $247,000 |
| 8. Mark Abrahams | St. John’s | Full Professor | $235,100 | $243,200 |
| 9. Jennifer Lokash | St. John’s | Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Pro Tempore | $232,000 | $244,800 |
| 10. Octavia Dobre | St. John’s | Dean/Full Professor | $227,900 | $243,500 |
| 11. Ashlee Cunsolo | Labrador Institute | Vice-Provost, Labrador Campus/Full Professor | $227,600 | $241,800 |
| 12. Travor Brown | St. John’s | Dean/Full Professor | $225,500 | $233,900 |
| 13. Paul Brett | Marine Institute | Vice-President (Fisheries & Marine Institute) | $223,100 | $225,800 |
| 14. Sean Cadigan | St. John’s | Full Professor | $221,500 | $229,100 |
| 15. Catharyn Andersen | St. John’s | Vice-President (Indigenous) | $220,000 | $245,400 |
| 16. Robert Shea | St. John’s | Associate Professor | $216,100 | $216,100 |
| 17. Shawn Bugden | St. John’s | Dean/Associate Professor | $214,500 | $222,100 |
| 18. D. Scott Worsfold | St. John’s | General Counsel | $213,500 | $214,700 |
| 19. Natasha Hurley | St. John’s | Dean/Full Professor | $209,700 | $217,600 |
| 20. Jeffrey Parsons | St. John’s | Full Professor | $209,200 | $216,200 |
| 21. Alice Gaudine | St. John’s | Full Professor | $207,200 | $214,200 |
| 22. Brenda Wilson | Medicine | Associate Dean/Full Professor | $207,200 | $215,100 |
| 23. John Hanchar | St. John’s | Full Professor | $207,000 | $213,900 |
| 24. Edward Kendall | Medicine | Full Professor | $207,000 | $213,900 |
| 25. Lorne Sulsky | St. John’s | Full Professor | $207,000 | $213,900 |
MUN salaries visualized
For the purposes of accessibility, we’ve visualized this data through a series of charts, shown below.
Administrative Bloat? Ask the Auditor General
Last year, an investigation of MUN by the Provincial Auditor General found that MUN has the highest executive salaries in Canada compared to other universities. The report also highlighted a difference of $143,000 between the salaries of an assistant deputy minister and a campus vice president.
According to the report, MUN has the highest administrative costs in Canada, $2,369 per student as of Winter of 2023, $893 higher than the national average. Additionally, some executives were granted packages allowing ninety-five days of annual leave, this amounts to over a third of the working year. The report also found that there were no position descriptions for 97% of positions in one sample, which included twenty-nine management jobs and seven vice-president positions.
Memorial accepted findings of the Auditor General’s report but also provided additional context:
“The university and the Board of Regents are committed to addressing the recommendations while maintaining the university’s autonomy and continuing to serve the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. … Memorial is committed to ensuring the best possible use of public resources while attracting and retaining professionals with the necessary skills and experience to run its operations effectively. Memorial aims to pay its employees fairly by comparing their salaries to what is typical in the job market. The university strives to keep salaries around the middle point of what similar jobs in similar markets pay.”
We have reached out to Neil Bose and Memorial for comment and will update with their response.