LANSING, Mich. — The average Michigan public-school teacher earns about $66,000 a year.
Michigan Education Association Interim Executive Director Earl Wiman collected $301,456 in FY2024 — about 4.6 times as much.
And that is only one of the findings in a new Americans for Fair Treatment (AFFT) “Where Do Your Union Dues Go?” report examining the finances, compensation and political spending of Michigan’s largest public employee union.
AFFT’s analysis found MEA spent $32.2 million on its own staff compensation and benefits in FY2024 — 68.7% of the union’s entire $46.9 million in expenses. Seven MEA employees collected more than $200,000 in total compensation.
Meanwhile, MEA ended the year with $107.1 million in assets, including $79.3 million in cash and publicly traded securities, after posting a $13.1 million annual surplus.
And outside the union’s offices, MEA-affiliated political action committees overwhelmingly funded one side of Michigan politics: 99% of their candidate, party and ballot-measure political dollars went to Democrats from 2017 through 2025.
“Michigan teachers should look at these numbers and ask one simple question: Is this what I thought I was paying for?” said Chip Rogers, CEO of Americans for Fair Treatment. “MEA paid its interim executive director more than four times what the average Michigan teacher earns, spent nearly 70 cents of every dollar on its own staff and built more than $100 million in assets — while its political machine overwhelmingly funded one party and helped advance a radical gender-identity agenda. Teachers deserve to know exactly where the money goes and what their union is supporting.”
SIX-FIGURE PAYCHECKS AT THE TOP
AFFT found:
- $301,456 in total compensation went to Interim Executive Director Earl Wiman.
- Staff Retirement Plan Administrator Jennifer Nowaczok-Miller received $263,380.
- Controller Jeffery Kindinger received $229,353.
- Seven MEA employees received more than $200,000 in total compensation.
- MEA spent $32.2 million on employee compensation and benefits, or 68.7% of all expenses.
- The union spent another $3.1 million on travel and nearly $883,000 on conferences and conventions.
MEA’s federal tax filing did not separately report direct benefits paid to or for rank-and-file members.
$107 MILLION IN ASSETS — AND ANOTHER $13 MILLION SURPLUS
MEA is not operating on thin margins.
The union reported $60 million in FY2024 revenue and finished the year with a $13.1 million operating surplus. Across the five fiscal years analyzed by AFFT, MEA accumulated approximately $82 million in operating surpluses.
At the end of FY2024, MEA reported $107.1 million in total assets, including approximately $79.3 million in cash and publicly traded securities.
At the same time, its workforce has fallen dramatically — from 966 employees in FY2021 to 338 in FY2024, a 65% decline from its peak.
99% OF PAC POLITICAL DOLLARS WENT TO DEMOCRATS
AFFT also analyzed campaign-finance records for three MEA-affiliated political action committees from 2017 through 2025.
Those PACs reported approximately $3.9 million in total disbursements during the period. Of roughly $3.36 million classified as contributions to candidates, political parties and ballot-measure committees, approximately $3.32 million — 99% — went to Democrats.
Republicans received just $13,133 over nine years.
The Michigan House Democratic Fund, Michigan Senate Democratic Fund and Michigan Democratic Party alone received a combined $945,075.
MEA PAC dollars also went to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Attorney General Dana Nessel and other Democratic officials and committees connected to some of Michigan’s most consequential gender-identity policy changes.
In 2023, Democratic legislative majorities backed by MEA-supported political committees passed legislation signed by Whitmer adding “gender identity or expression” as a protected class under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
That same year, Michigan enacted legislation banning so-called “conversion therapy” for minors, including efforts to change a minor’s gender identity or expression.
Attorney General Nessel also joined a multistate coalition in the U.S. Supreme Court case Mahmoud v. Taylor opposing a parental right to opt children out of LGBTQ-themed materials in public schools.
“Teachers across Michigan do not all think alike, vote alike or share the same political views,” Rogers said. “Yet MEA’s political spending moved almost entirely in one direction. No teacher should have to wonder whether the organization taking money from their paycheck is using its political power to advance causes they may deeply oppose.”
AFFT’s Michigan report analyzes MEA’s FY2024 federal Form 990, historical tax filings and Michigan campaign-finance records covering 2017 through 2025.
Read the full Michigan “Where Do Your Union Dues Go?” report.
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
Under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Janus v. AFSCME, public-sector employees cannot be required to pay union dues or agency fees as a condition of employment.
Workers who want to learn more about their rights, union membership or stopping union dues can visit AFFT.org or call (833) 969-FAIR.