UBC’s latest financial statement outlines the university’s finances up to March 31, 2024, with $1.9 billion allocated to employee compensation. This is an increase from the $1.7 billion reported for the previous fiscal year.
UBC Athletics’s staff made up almost $5.8 million of this year's total remuneration, which is $1.4 million higher than the previous fiscal year.
In accordance with the Financial Information Act, UBC is legally required to release annual financial statements, including all employee and service salaries above $75,000.
Below, we broke down some of the top earners at UBC Athletics and Recreation, how much head coaches are making and the disparities between sports and genders.
Managing Director of Athletics and Recreation Kavie Toor is the highest paid staff member at just over $215,000. Three head coaches — football’s Blake Nill, men’s basketball Kevin Hanson and women’s volleyball Doug Reimer — along with strength and conditioning head coach Joe McCullum also cracked the top 10 earners. The other five are made up of varsity directors and one of the department's mental performance psychologists.
Most of Athletics and Recreation’s disclosed salaries are varsity coaching staff, collectively racking in over $2.3 million. The varsity administration, which includes Toor and other directors, comes in second and the varsity facilities operations staff rounds off the top three.
For varsity head coaches, swimming head coach Derrick Schoof and women's hockey head coach Graham Thomas join Nill, Hanson and Reimer for the top five. All but six head coaches made over $100,000.
Men’s field hockey head coach Kinder Gill, softball head coach Jennifer McKellar, men’s rugby head coach Didier Banse and women’s basketball head coach Isabel Ormond were not listed, therefore earning less than $75,000 per fiscal year.
Current women’s field hockey head coach Geoff Matthews was not hired until past the disclosure cutoff date, but the 2023/24 head coach (Richard Hildreth) also was unlisted.
Looking at coach earnings overall, from the previous fiscal year to this one, Hanson got the largest salary raise ($19,829) while Nill had the largest salary reduction ($62,495).
Nill’s reduction is particularly interesting as the football program had one of its most successful seasons in 2023/24. However, it could be possibly attributed to increases in his staff's salaries, as the salaries of offensive coordinator Stevensone Bone and football recruiting coordinator Shomari Williams were disclosed in this fiscal year, but not the previous.
The only other two head coach positions to have salary reductions were men’s rugby and women’s basketball, both of which had coaching changes during this fiscal year.
Basketball is the highest paid dual-gender sport, with a combined total of approximately $257,056 — it could be lower, because Ormond’s salary is undisclosed. Five of the nine dual-gender sports (basketball, ice hockey, volleyball, rowing and soccer) had combined head coach salaries of over $200,000.
Basketball also had the largest salary difference within gendered sports, with at least a $105,000 disparity. Again, since Ormond’s salary is not publicly available, the disparity may be larger. The smallest wage gap between gendered teams is soccer with men’s head coach Mike Mosher earning $8,453 more than women’s head coach Jesse Symons.
There is some equality — three of six gendered sports have the women’s head coach paid more than the men’s.
Further, when you compare UBC to other athletic programs in Canada West, head coaches are paid well. All head coaches from UVic are paid less than $100,000 — the highest paid coach was men’s basketball head coach Craig Beaucamp at $99,205. Beaucamp’s salary was $82,852 less than his UBC counterpart (Hanson) and $793 less than Athletics’s lowest-disclosed head coach salary.
Looking at football programs across Canada West, UBC also pays the best. Nill is paid almost 31.5 per cent more than University of Alberta football head coach Chris Morris and almost double that of University of Regina football head coach Mark McConkey.
By reference of university budgets, Nill is paid approximately 40 per cent of UBC President’s Benoit-Antoine Bacon stipulated salary of $515,000, while Morris and McConkey are paid 34 and 27 per cent respectively of their university president’s salaries.
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