Larry Bacow, who was president of Harvard University before Claudine Gay and current president Alan Garber, was the top earner at the institution with a total income of close to $3.1 million, according to the most recent tax filings sent to MassLive.
Bacow’s compensation includes close to $1.4 million base pay with a bonus and incentive payment of $1.4 million and other payments, including from his deferred compensation account upon his retirement.
The tax filings, which are called Form 990, are part of a requirement for nonprofits to disclose the highest earners. The most recent filing is for 2023, also called fiscal year 2024.
The people with the highest income after Bacow at Harvard were Harvard Business School professors Paul Healy and Herman Leonard, who received close to $2 million.
David Malan, a computer science professor, earned close to $1.4 million.
Former president Claudine Gay and previous dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences earned a total of close to $1.4 million, according to the filings. Her base pay was over $1 million.
Gay was the first Black and second female president of Harvard. She began her presidency in July 2023 but resigned after only six months following plagiarism accusations and a Congressional hearing on campus antisemitism amid the war in Gaza.
Gay’s base salary is close to $350,000 less than what Bacow made in 2023. Her base salary is less than what he earned in the previous two tax filings.
However, her base pay is similar to what Bacow earned in 2020 and more than he made in 2019, according to tax filings.
Read more: Harvard president claims he is taking 25% pay cut following federal funding cuts
Current president Alan Garber, who was formerly the university’s provost in 2023, earned $1.2 million — $922,068 base, plus other compensation of $242,968.
Four other faculty and administrators earned over $1 million in total compensation in 2023.
These are the top 10 earners at Harvard in 2023:
Lawrence S. Bacow, former Harvard University President: $3,080,733Paul M. Healy, Harvard Business School Professor: $1,972,836Herman B. Leonard, Harvard Business School Professor: $1,889,946David J. Malan, Computer Science Professor: $1,369,936Claudine Gay, former Harvard University President and Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean: $1,362,955Alan M. Garber, former Harvard University Provost, current Harvard University President: $1,165,036Srikant M. Datar, Dean of Harvard Business School: $1,140,102Linda Hill, Harvard Business School Professor: $1,047,648Diane Lopez, former Vice President of the Office of General Counsel: $1,045,813George Q. Daley, Harvard Medical School Dean: $1,013,063
These numbers include their total income, which is their base pay in addition to other payments such as bonuses and retirement contributions.
Trump administration targets Harvard for cuts
The tax filings of Harvard officials come after President Alan Garber claims that he is taking a voluntary 25% pay cut as the institution faces nearly $3 billion in federal funding cuts by the Trump administration.
Harvard University is also barred from acquiring new federal grants, according to the federal administration.
The federal government pointed to “pervasive race discrimination and anti-Semitic harassment” as continuing reasons for cutting federal funding.
Harvard announced in March a pause on hiring, which included schools and administrative units to “scrutinize discretionary and non-salary spending, reassess the scope and timing of capital renewal projects, and conduct a rigorous review of any new multi-year commitments.”
A month later, the schools and units in the central administration announced that non-union faculty and staff wouldn’t be receiving merit pay increases for the upcoming fiscal year and there would be pauses on non-essential capital projects and spending.
“Harvard’s campus, once a symbol of academic prestige, has become a breeding ground for virtue signaling and discrimination. This is not leadership; it is cowardice. And it‘s not academic freedom; it‘s institutional disenfranchisement. There is a dark problem on Harvard’s campus, and by prioritizing appeasement over accountability, institutional leaders have forfeited the school’s claim to taxpayer support,” the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism said.
Garber wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon that they share the same “common ground,” but the university “will not surrender its core, legally-protected principles out of fear.”
Garber pushed back on the administration through a lawsuit in April. The institution argues that its constitutional rights had been violated by the government‘s threats to pull billions of dollars in funding if the school didn’t comply with demands for an overhaul.
Following the $450 million announced cuts, the university amended its lawsuit.
“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” the suit reads.
