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Constructor value

Amount each constructor's Shortz Era contribution would be worth at today's prices

Note: this is not what constructors have been paid. It's what they would have been paid if today's prices had been offered throughout their career.

There are several problems with this calculation: only puzzles from the Shortz Era are considered here (back to 1993), Variety contributions (acrostic, diagramless, cryptic, etc.) are not included, and the payment amounts have varied over time. For example,the payment for daily puzzles increased from $200 to $300 on January 20, 2014, but the calculations here assume each daily is worth $300.

Payments for collaboration puzzles are assumed to be split evenly among the listed constructors.
Only constructors valued at least $4,000 are displayed here.

Current pay rates:

Daily:	$300
Sunday:	$1,000

Update:

As of January 1, 2017, the New York Times started paying higher rates for constructors who had ten or more previously published NYT puzzles. Daily pay went from $300 to $360, and Sunday from $1,000 to $1,200. These changes are not reflected in the calculations below.

Rank	Name	Count	Solos	Collabs	Sundays	Value
1.	Patrick Berry	220	218	2	71	$115,400
2.	Elizabeth C. Gorski	219	219	0	67	$112,600
3.	Manny Nosowsky	246	244	2	29	$93,450
4.	David J. Kahn	171	167	4	42	$79,050
5.	Rich Norris	186	186	0	18	$68,400
6.	Brendan Emmett Quigley	157	144	13	33	$67,900
7.	Randolph Ross	102	102	0	46	$62,800
8.	Joe DiPietro	125	125	0	28	$57,100
9.	Nancy Salomon	185	69	116	36	$53,683
10.	Cathy Allis	84	84	0	40	$53,200
11.	Alan Arbesfeld	107	107	0	22	$47,500
12.	Richard Silvestri	84	84	0	26	$43,400
13.	Fred Piscop	104	104	0	14	$41,000
14.	Patrick Merrell	85	85	0	20	$39,500
15.	Nancy Nicholson Joline	48	47	1	34	$37,700
16.	Harvey Estes	116	71	45	20	$37,500
17.	Gregory E. Paul	116	116	0	0	$34,800
18.	Paula Gamache	89	85	4	8	$31,350
19.	Peter A. Collins	99	88	11	5	$31,200
20.	Frank Longo	68	66	2	14	$29,900
21.	Peter Gordon	80	80	0	7	$28,900
22.	Barry C. Silk	92	86	6	3	$28,450
23.	Jim Page	70	70	0	10	$28,000
24.	Matt Gaffney	58	57	1	14	$27,050
25.	Byron Walden	77	66	11	8	$26,350
26.	Robert H. Wolfe	60	60	0	11	$25,700
27.	Joe Krozel	84	69	15	4	$25,400
28.	Lynn Lempel	75	74	1	4	$25,150
29.	Jeff Chen	69	29	40	20	$24,500
30.	Bob Klahn	60	50	10	13	$24,200
31.	Frances Hansen	40	40	0	17	$23,900
	A. J. Santora	68	68	0	5	$23,900
33.	Joel Fagliano	50	47	3	12	$22,600
34.	Martin Ashwood-Smith	78	68	10	0	$21,900
	Randall J. Hartman	73	73	0	0	$21,900
36.	Ian Livengood	55	51	4	6	$20,100
37.	Matt Ginsberg	41	34	7	15	$20,000
38.	Patrick Blindauer	55	35	20	13	$19,450
	Trip Payne	42	41	1	10	$19,450
40.	David Steinberg	62	51	11	4	$19,050
41.	Kevin G. Der	37	35	2	12	$18,850
42.	Charles M. Deber	19	19	0	18	$18,300
43.	Eric Berlin	37	35	2	11	$18,150
44.	Mark Diehl	55	54	1	1	$16,700
45.	Tom McCoy	25	25	0	13	$16,600
46.	Mike Nothnagel	50	45	5	4	$16,350
47.	Ed Early	53	52	1	1	$16,100
48.	Sherry O. Blackard	53	48	5	1	$15,850
49.	Michael Shteyman	49	44	5	3	$15,350
50.	Sarah Keller	51	50	1	0	$15,150
51.	Timothy Polin	37	35	2	6	$15,000
	Sidney L. Robbins	50	50	0	0	$15,000
53.	Andrea Carla Michaels	56	27	29	5	$14,200
	Wayne Robert Williams	38	38	0	4	$14,200
55.	Caleb Madison	31	28	3	8	$14,100
56.	Dan Schoenholz	22	22	0	10	$13,600
57.	Victor Fleming	46	22	24	7	$13,350
58.	Jeremy Newton	17	15	2	13	$13,200
59.	Zhouqin Burnikel	42	26	16	5	$12,650
60.	Edward Sessa	35	35	0	3	$12,600
61.	Richard Hughes	35	35	0	2	$11,900
	Bryant White	28	28	0	5	$11,900
63.	Bob Peoples	39	33	6	3	$11,850
64.	Chuck Deodene	39	39	0	0	$11,700
	Henry Hook	25	25	0	6	$11,700
	Allan E. Parrish	39	39	0	0	$11,700
67.	David Quarfoot	41	34	7	1	$11,600
68.	Tony Orbach	24	11	13	15	$11,550
69.	Brad Wilber	50	26	24	0	$11,400
70.	John Farmer	33	33	0	2	$11,300
71.	Samuel A. Donaldson	27	22	5	6	$11,200
72.	Will Nediger	20	20	0	7	$10,900
73.	Daniel A. Finan	15	15	0	9	$10,800
	Stephanie Spadaccini	36	36	0	0	$10,800
75.	Dana Motley	31	31	0	2	$10,700
76.	Gary Cee	33	33	0	1	$10,600
77.	David Levinson Wilk	23	23	0	5	$10,400
78.	Richard Chisholm	32	32	0	1	$10,300
	Greg Staples	25	25	0	4	$10,300
80.	Dean Niles	15	15	0	8	$10,100
81.	Raymond Hamel	27	26	1	3	$10,050
82.	Tim Croce	33	32	1	0	$9,750
83.	Jonathan Schmalzbach	30	30	0	1	$9,700
	Bill Zais	15	10	5	10	$9,700
85.	Karen M. Tracey	32	32	0	0	$9,600
86.	Doug Peterson	38	17	21	2	$8,950
87.	Janet R. Bender	27	27	0	1	$8,800
	Adam G. Perl	27	27	0	1	$8,800
89.	Bruce Haight	25	24	1	2	$8,750
90.	Peter Wentz	26	26	0	1	$8,500
91.	Kevan Choset	27	24	3	2	$8,350
92.	Michael Ashley	11	11	0	7	$8,200
93.	Tracy Gray	21	17	4	5	$8,150
94.	Ashish Vengsarkar	15	11	4	7	$8,100
95.	Nelson Hardy	11	10	1	7	$8,050
96.	Josh Knapp	22	22	0	2	$8,000
	Con Pederson	8	8	0	8	$8,000
	Nancy S. Ross	22	22	0	2	$8,000
99.	Lou Sabin	29	3	26	7	$7,950
100.	Nancy Kavanaugh	26	26	0	0	$7,800
	Michael Torch	19	19	0	3	$7,800
102.	Natan Last	21	19	2	3	$7,750
103.	Damon J. Gulczynski	23	23	0	1	$7,600
104.	Mel Rosen	14	13	1	5	$7,550
105.	Myles Callum	22	22	0	1	$7,300
	Julian Lim	22	22	0	1	$7,300
	Finn Vigeland	13	10	3	6	$7,300
108.	Tyler Hinman	22	17	5	2	$7,250
109.	Martin Schneider	12	12	0	5	$7,100
110.	Michael S. Maurer	17	16	1	3	$7,050
111.	Alex K. Justin	14	14	0	4	$7,000
	Stanley Newman	21	21	0	1	$7,000
	Derrick Niederman	7	7	0	7	$7,000
114.	Daniel C. Bryant	9	9	0	6	$6,900
115.	Carolyn W. Stewart	21	20	1	1	$6,850
116.	Seth A. Abel	11	11	0	5	$6,800
117.	Jacob Stulberg	20	20	0	1	$6,700
118.	Kyle Mahowald	18	17	1	2	$6,650
	joon pahk	20	15	5	3	$6,650
120.	Gerald R. Ferguson	22	22	0	0	$6,600
	Randy Sowell	22	22	0	0	$6,600
122.	Jim Hyres	21	20	1	1	$6,500
123.	Rand H. Burns	21	21	0	0	$6,300
	Lee Glickstein	25	3	22	6	$6,300
	Pete Muller	17	11	6	5	$6,300
126.	Oliver Hill	16	14	2	3	$6,250
127.	Todd Gross	15	10	5	4	$6,200
128.	James Mulhern	23	18	5	0	$6,150
129.	Yaakov Bendavid	6	6	0	6	$6,000
	Bernice Gordon	21	19	2	0	$6,000
131.	David Phillips	18	17	1	1	$5,950
132.	Kelsey Blakley	8	8	0	5	$5,900
	Ned White	19	18	1	1	$5,900
	David Woolf	15	15	0	2	$5,900
135.	Craig Kasper	15	10	5	4	$5,850
	Dave Tuller	14	11	3	3	$5,850
137.	Norma Steinberg	17	17	0	1	$5,800
138.	Adam Cohen	19	19	0	0	$5,700
	Ernie Furtado	12	12	0	3	$5,700
140.	Norman S. Wizer	14	14	0	2	$5,600
141.	Robert Malinow	9	9	0	4	$5,500
	Fran Sabin	25	0	25	5	$5,500
143.	Karen Young Bonin	11	11	0	3	$5,400
	Mark Feldman	11	11	0	3	$5,400
	Gilbert H. Ludwig	18	18	0	0	$5,400
	Lois Sidway	18	18	0	0	$5,400
147.	Mary Lou Guizzo	17	9	8	2	$5,300
	Roy Leban	13	13	0	2	$5,300
149.	Ben Tausig	9	7	2	5	$5,200
	Alex Vratsanos	13	10	3	3	$5,200
151.	Charles E. Gersch	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Kristian House	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Thomas W. Schier	17	17	0	0	$5,100
154.	Robert W. Harris	7	7	0	4	$4,900
	Pamela Amick Klawitter	7	7	0	4	$4,900
	Merl Reagle	7	7	0	4	$4,900
	Arthur S. Verdesca	14	14	0	1	$4,900
	John Wolting	14	14	0	1	$4,900
159.	Robert Dillman	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Patrick Jordan	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Daniel R. Stark	16	16	0	0	$4,800
162.	David Kwong	16	11	5	2	$4,750
163.	Kelly Clark	15	14	1	1	$4,533
164.	Holden Baker	16	14	2	0	$4,500
	Susan Gelfand	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	William I. Johnston	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Gene Newman	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Gary J. Whitehead	15	15	0	0	$4,500
169.	John Greenman	12	12	0	1	$4,300
170.	Ethan Cooper	14	12	2	1	$4,250
171.	Frederick J. Healy	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Christopher Hurt	11	10	1	2	$4,200
	Jules P. Markey	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	John Underwood	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Michael Vuolo	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Jeffrey Wechsler	14	14	0	0	$4,200
177.	Todd McClary	12	11	1	1	$4,150
178.	Alfio Micci	11	11	0	1	$4,000

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