Munitz lost quite a salary; study ranks top execs’ pay

Before Barry Munitz was toppled from leadership of the J. Paul Getty Trust in February, a new study has found, his compensation placed him fifth among the highest-paid nonprofit leaders in the country.

In its annual ranking of executive salaries, the Chronicle of Philanthropy found the best-paid executives in 2005 were all in the medical field, with the top spot -- compensation totaling $2.49 million -- occupied by Harold Varmus, chief executive at New York’s Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Beyond the medical field, the Chronicle found, highest pay went to Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., who brought home $1,029,691. The survey put Munitz just behind Kaiser with $962,526 in compensation.

In its reporting on Munitz’s resignation amid a probe of Getty spending by the state attorney general, The Times has noted that when expenses and other forms of compensation are included, Munitz’s total compensation amounted to well more than $1 million.

Comparing figures at 242 of the nation’s largest nonprofit organizations, the Chronicle found that the median top executive salary grew last year by 4.8% (to $334,885) while inflation rose 3.4%.

christopher.reynolds@la times.com