Ira Glass and other NPR hosts—gasp!—get paid decent money

Heads up, conservatives. Here’s something else to get riled up about, perhaps undeservedly: The hosts of NPR’s most popular shows get paid pretty well.

Blogger Andy Boyle used Guidestar, a website that tracks non-profit tax documents, to find out what NPR personalities pull down. For 2008-2009, Boyle reports, This American Life’s Ira Glass, for example, made $159,371, with $11,234 in other compensation, which can potentially include things like insurance, travel reimbursements, and so on. Fresh Air’s Terry Gross made $225,303. Both of those are kind of low, compared to Morning Edition’s Steven Inskeep and Renee Montagne, both of whom pull in just under $300,000 annually, according to Boyle’s post. All Things Considered hosts Michele Norris and Robert Siegel’s salaries hover in that area, too.

It is absolutely worth noting, though, that Glass, Inskeep, Montagne, and Siegel—at least—took recent pay cuts. All of their salaries were markedly higher in 2007-2008, reports Boyle. Glass, for instance, took about a 26 percent pay cut, presumably so members of his staff could stay employed. And Renee Montagne’s salary dropped about 21 percent, according to Boyle.

Other salaries, including those of Julie Snyder and Alex Blumberg, can be found in Boyle’s original post. It’s also worth noting that this week marks the 40th anniversary of NPR.