One employee got a $19,000 raise before he’d collected his first paycheck – and both make more than the acting director himself
After railing against the agency’s “wasteful spending,” the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has appointed two senior staff members at pay grades far above their previous salaries.
Acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney has repeatedly called for the agency to be slimmed down – and even submitted a quarterly budget request of $0. However, according to a New York Times report, Mulvaney has recently appointed two senior staff members who are paid salaries of more than $230,000 – far above what they had been earning in their previous government jobs, according to the Times.
The CFPB and other financial regulators are allowed to pay employees significantly more than other government agencies in order to recruit skilled financial professionals. Of the CFPB’s 1,600 employees, 219 make more than $200,000 per year, according to records obtained by the Times.
The new appointees are Kirsten Sutton, the agency’s new chief of staff, and Brian Johnson, who has been appointed as a senior advisor.
Sutton’s new salary is $259,000 per year, according to public records. That’s a raise of more than 50% from the salary Sutton earned in her previous job as staff director for the House Financial Services Committee. In that position, her annual salary was $170,000, according to the Times. She’s also making 22% more than the last person who held her position at the CFPB, Leandra English. As chief of staff, English made about $212,000 per year.
Johnson previously worked as policy director for the House Financial Services Committee, for an annual salary of $170,000. Johnson was hired at the CFPB with a starting salary of $220,000 – but that was raised to $239,595 before his first paycheck even arrived, according to the Times.
The two new appointees are actually making more than Mulvaney himself, according to the Times. Mulvaney doesn’t collect a salary from the CFPB. As acting director, he’s on temporary loan from the Office of Management and Budget, which pays his salary. Mulvaney is paid a base salary of $199,700, according to the Times.
