State psychiatrist tops N.J. pay list with nearly $600K in 2025
A New Jersey state psychiatrist was the state's top-paid government worker in 2025, earning nearly $600,000. Dr. Alexandru Profiriu, a clinical psychiatrist at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in South Jersey, took home $597,232.97 by the fourth quarter of 2025, according to an NJ.com analysis of state payroll records.
The finding is part of a broader look at what more than 97,000 New Jersey state employees earned last year. While median pay sat at $79,691, a small group of specialists—especially psychiatrists at state-run hospitals—pulled in well over six figures when base wages and additional compensation were combined.
Key Takeaways
- Dr. Alexandru Profiriu earned $597,232.97, the highest total among state workers in 2025.
- Fellow psychiatrists Dr. Clifford Jones ($557,203.58) and Dr. Safeer Ansari ($554,269.58) ranked second and third.
- Most of the top 13 earners work at state psychiatric hospitals; one exception is a senior correctional police officer.
- New Jersey spent more than $32.1 billion on state employee salaries and compensation in 2025.
- Payroll data comes from the New Jersey Transparency Center but excludes state-university employees.
Who are New Jersey's highest-paid state employees?
Dr. Profiriu's regular pay was $256,514.22, with another $339,718.75 in additional compensation, NJ.com reported. Dr. Jones and Dr. Ansari followed closely, each earning roughly $260,000 to $263,000 beyond their base salaries.
The lone non-hospital name among the highlighted top earners is Samuel Lindsey, a senior correctional police officer at Bayside State Prison in Maurice River Township. His regular pay was $111,379.84, but overtime added $271,641.20 and other payments $2,200.
NJ.com published a searchable database of the top 13 and broader earnings as part of a series on public employee pay. The analysis drew attention to how a psychiatrist at a state facility can out-earn nearly every other government role in New Jersey.
Why did psychiatrists dominate the top of the pay list?
State-run psychiatric hospitals employ many of New Jersey's highest-compensated workers. Specialized medical roles often combine substantial base salaries with large "other" payment categories that vary by position.
For the three leading psychiatrists, additional compensation exceeded base pay—driving totals above $550,000. The state Department of Treasury does not define "other" payments uniformly because they depend on the role; a Treasury spokesperson cited uniform stipends as one example.
Psychiatrists also appear in major criminal cases far beyond payroll spreadsheets. In a separate high-profile matter, psychiatrist Dr. Avram Mack resigned from Nemours Children's Health in Delaware after testifying in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial, The Boston Globe reported—underscoring how forensic psychiatry intersects with accountability questions that readers in our True Crime & Unsolved Mysteries coverage follow closely.
How much does New Jersey spend on state worker compensation?
Overall, the state spent more than $32.1 billion on salaries and other compensation for employees in 2025, according to NJ.com's review of Transparency Center data. The figures cover full-time and part-time workers across agencies such as the Department of Education and authorities including NJ Transit.
Some positions—legislative aides and National Guard members, for example—may not appear because of how they are paid. University employees have separate payroll systems and are not included, though open-records findings showed several Rutgers staffers earned seven figures in 2025, including football coach Greg Schiano at $6.5 million.
What should taxpayers know about the salary data?
Former Gov. Phil Murphy ranked 3,329th among state workers, earning $174,329.48 in his final year in office—well below the psychiatrists atop the list but above the statewide median.
Earnings in the NJ.com database reflect base wages plus overtime and other payments received during the year. For deeper detail, see the original reporting at Yahoo News, which republished NJ.com's investigation.