SC Department of Transportation head Christy Hall has made a big difference for her employees.

Since she took over, the number of her employees making at least $100,000 has almost doubled.

DOT’s total employee size has changed little but its salaries have, we found.

The state Agency Head Salary Commission has raised Hall’s annual salary by $60,288, or nearly 32%, from $190,944 to $251,232.

Hall, 1st appointed by then-Gov. Nikki Haley, was making $180,000 after she became the permanent DOT secretary in January 2016.

The Nerve’s review of state salary database records found that as of March 2015, DOT had 53 employees making $100,000 or more.

Then-DOT head Janet Oakley’s salary was $156,220 – $95,012 less than Hall’s new salary.

At the time, the number of agency workers earning at least $50,000 was 987.

By the end of 2016, in the first year of Hall’s position as the department’s permanent director, the number of $100,000-plus employees had grown by 32, or 60%, compared to March 2015.

On Jan. 21 this year, 100 DOT employees were in the $100k Club – 47 more than in 2015, nearly 89% more.

Those making $50,000 or more was 1,130, an increase of about 14.5%.

Among those earning at least $50,000, their average annual salary was $72,905 compared to an average of $69,830 in 2015.

The SC per-capita income was $42,736 last April, according to the S.C. Department of Revenue.

The number of DOT employees from July 2015, before Hall became permanent director, to Jan. 13 of this year dropped by about 3.4%, from 4,349 to 4,202.

In comparison, North Carolina’s DOT director James Trogdon makes $227,899 in a larger state, $23,333 less than Hall’s pay.

NC has about 10,100 fulltime employees, more than double SCDOT’s size.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, the Agency Head Salary Commission chairman, defended Hall’s nearly 32% pay raise. He said her leadership of the agency helped convince lawmakers to hike gas taxes, The State newspaper reported.

The controversial law increased gas taxes 12 cents a gallon over 6 years and raised other taxes and fees.

Since the law took effect July 1, 2017, DOT has completed relatively few major repaving or road reconstruction projects statewide.

Yet a special fund created by the law has banked hundreds of millions in reserve.

Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve. Contact him at 803-254-4411 or rick@thenerve.org