ALBANY — Even as the national economy tanked, a six-figure tsunami swept the state payroll last year, with the number of workers who earn more than $100,000 surging 28 percent, The Post has learned.
The ranks of state employees hauling down six-figure salaries swelled to 20,416 in 2008, up from 15,990 the previous year, according to a Post analysis of salary data.
Those top earners made up nearly 8 percent of the state workforce, up from just over 2 percent at the start of the decade.
In 2008 — the latest figures available — such elite workers gobbled up about a sixth of the state’s $15 billion payroll.
CUNY and SUNY led the list of six-figure salaries, with a combined 7,000 employees who made more than $100,000 a year.
All but one of the 200 highest-paid state workers in 2008 — employees making more than $242,000 a year — worked for one of the university systems.
The judiciary came in second, with about 4,500 top earners.
Overall, 1,002 state workers made more than the governor, whose annual salary is legally capped at $179,000.
About one-third of the State Police’s 6,000 employees collected six figures, a share far larger than at any other agency.
The Governor’s Office and the Division of Budget followed, with 20 percent earning above $100,000.
The number of six-figure state workers has increased every year in the last decade except 2003, when it slipped in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
Budget officials attribute part of the jump to raises negotiated under former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007 and put into effect during 2008 by Spitzer and his successor, Gov. Paterson.
The six-figure surge will likely continue. Union employees got a 3 percent hike this year after labor leaders beat back Paterson’s call for a one-time wage freeze.
They’re slated to get another 4 percent hike next year, when the state faces a deficit of $9 billion.
The Post’s analysis included overtime earnings.