More than 400 labor officials earned more than a quarter of a million dollars in salary in 2012, according to a new study.
Media Trackers found that the top 100 highest paid union officials garnered more than $52 million in 2012, salaries paid by membership dues of the laborers and government employees they represent.
The top-paid union official is NBA Player’s Association head G. William Hunter, who made more than $3.1 million on the year. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees chief Lee Saunders rounded out the top 100 with gross pay of $353,580, according to the study.
Labor unions spent more than $1.7 billion on the 2012 election cycle, the most of any interest group. Most of that money went to aid President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats, who campaigned on the promise of hiking taxes on those who earn more than $250,000 per year.
"A total of 428 American labor union officers and employees were paid more than $250,000 in 2012, in stark contrast to union propaganda expressing solidarity with 'the middle class,'" the report states.
Boilermakers president Newton Jones, of Kansas, is the only official in the Top 10 who lives in a right-to-work state. The other nine live in Washington D.C., New York, and Illinois, where employees can be forced to join unions as a condition of employment.
Read the full report here.