The board that oversees the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) voted unanimously Thursday to give state Health Director Dr. Scott Harris a 2% pay increase starting in September.
Harris, ADPH’s chief executive, currently makes $329,000 a year, according to state data. The raise represents a roughly $6,600 cost-of-living increase, bringing her total to about $336,000. Because Harris is an at-will employee, not a state employee, any salary increase would require a vote by the board.
“When the governor gives a raise to a state employee, I have to manually calculate my pay because I don’t get a raise. I’m not meritocratic, so I just pay them what they make,” Harris said after the meeting.
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Last year, Harris A 7% pay increase, or about $20,000.This includes a 2% cost-of-living adjustment and a 5% merit-based pay increase.
Harris was appointed Acting State Health Director for ADPH in September 2017 and became Alabama’s State Health Commissioner in February 2018. His biography on the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials websiteHe graduated from Harding University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, completed a fellowship in adult infectious diseases, and earned his Master of Public Health degree from UAB. He began practicing infectious diseases in Decatur, Alabama in 1996.
