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	Solo	Collab	Sun.	Value
1.	Patrick Berry	226	224	2	73	$118,600
2.	Elizabeth C. Gorski	219	219	0	67	$112,600
3.	Manny Nosowsky	246	244	2	29	$93,450
4.	David J. Kahn	179	174	5	44	$82,350
5.	Brendan Emmett Quigley	164	148	16	35	$70,950
6.	Rich Norris	186	186	0	18	$68,400
7.	Randolph Ross	106	106	0	46	$64,000
8.	Joe DiPietro	128	127	1	28	$57,850
9.	Nancy Salomon	185	69	116	36	$53,683
10.	Cathy Allis	84	84	0	40	$53,200
11.	Alan Arbesfeld	113	113	0	23	$50,000
12.	Richard Silvestri	84	84	0	26	$43,400
13.	Fred Piscop	104	104	0	14	$41,000
14.	Patrick Merrell	88	87	1	21	$40,950
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.	Peter A. Collins	104	92	12	5	$32,550
19.	Peter Gordon	89	89	0	7	$31,600
20.	Paula Gamache	89	85	4	8	$31,350
21.	Jeff Chen	90	38	52	24	$31,100
22.	Frank Longo	68	66	2	14	$29,900
23.	Byron Walden	83	70	13	10	$28,900
24.	Barry C. Silk	92	86	6	3	$28,450
25.	Jim Page	70	70	0	10	$28,000
26.	Lynn Lempel	82	80	2	4	$27,100
27.	Matt Gaffney	58	57	1	14	$27,050
28.	Joe Krozel	87	72	15	4	$26,300
	David Steinberg	84	68	16	6	$26,300
30.	Robert H. Wolfe	60	60	0	11	$25,700
31.	Joel Fagliano	56	51	5	14	$25,500
32.	Bob Klahn	60	50	10	13	$24,200
33.	Frances Hansen	40	40	0	17	$23,900
	A. J. Santora	68	68	0	5	$23,900
35.	Randall J. Hartman	74	74	0	0	$22,200
36.	Martin Ashwood-Smith	78	68	10	0	$21,900
37.	Tom McCoy	32	32	0	17	$21,500
38.	Matt Ginsberg	43	36	7	16	$21,300
39.	Patrick Blindauer	57	36	21	14	$20,600
40.	Ian Livengood	55	51	4	6	$20,100
41.	Kevin G. Der	40	38	2	12	$19,750
42.	Trip Payne	42	41	1	10	$19,450
43.	Eric Berlin	39	36	3	12	$19,300
	Charles M. Deber	20	20	0	19	$19,300
45.	Mark Diehl	63	60	3	1	$18,800
46.	Timothy Polin	47	45	2	7	$18,700
47.	Zhouqin Burnikel	56	37	19	5	$16,400
48.	Mike Nothnagel	50	45	5	4	$16,350
49.	Ed Early	53	52	1	1	$16,100
50.	Sherry O. Blackard	53	48	5	1	$15,850
51.	Michael Shteyman	51	45	6	3	$15,800
52.	Caleb Madison	34	31	3	9	$15,700
53.	Andrea Carla Michaels	61	28	33	6	$15,450
54.	Sarah Keller	52	50	2	0	$15,300
55.	Sidney L. Robbins	50	50	0	0	$15,000
56.	Will Nediger	24	24	0	11	$14,900
57.	Bruce Haight	43	39	4	3	$14,400
58.	Wayne Robert Williams	38	38	0	4	$14,200
59.	Dan Schoenholz	23	23	0	10	$13,900
	Edward Sessa	37	37	0	4	$13,900
61.	Victor Fleming	46	22	24	7	$13,350
62.	Jeremy Newton	17	15	2	13	$13,200
63.	Chuck Deodene	41	41	0	0	$12,300
64.	Bryant White	29	29	0	5	$12,200
65.	Richard Hughes	35	35	0	2	$11,900
66.	Bob Peoples	39	33	6	3	$11,850
67.	Henry Hook	25	25	0	6	$11,700
	Tony Orbach	25	11	14	15	$11,700
	Allan E. Parrish	39	39	0	0	$11,700
70.	David Quarfoot	41	34	7	1	$11,600
71.	Brad Wilber	51	26	25	0	$11,550
72.	Samuel A. Donaldson	29	22	7	6	$11,500
73.	David Levinson Wilk	24	24	0	6	$11,400
74.	John Farmer	33	33	0	2	$11,300
	Peter Wentz	33	33	0	2	$11,300
76.	Gary Cee	35	35	0	1	$11,200
	Damon J. Gulczynski	35	35	0	1	$11,200
78.	Daniel A. Finan	15	15	0	9	$10,800
	Stephanie Spadaccini	36	36	0	0	$10,800
	Jacob Stulberg	29	29	0	3	$10,800
81.	Dana Motley	31	31	0	2	$10,700
82.	Natan Last	27	21	6	5	$10,350
83.	Richard Chisholm	32	32	0	1	$10,300
	Greg Staples	25	25	0	4	$10,300
85.	Dean Niles	15	15	0	8	$10,100
86.	Raymond Hamel	27	26	1	3	$10,050
87.	Jonathan Schmalzbach	31	30	1	1	$9,850
88.	Tim Croce	33	32	1	0	$9,750
	Finn Vigeland	17	13	4	8	$9,750
90.	Adam G. Perl	30	30	0	1	$9,700
	Bill Zais	15	10	5	10	$9,700
92.	Tracy Gray	24	19	5	6	$9,600
	Karen M. Tracey	32	32	0	0	$9,600
94.	Doug Peterson	40	17	23	2	$9,250
95.	Janet R. Bender	27	27	0	1	$8,800
96.	Kevan Choset	27	24	3	2	$8,350
97.	Josh Knapp	23	23	0	2	$8,300
98.	Michael Ashley	11	11	0	7	$8,200
99.	Ashish Vengsarkar	15	11	4	7	$8,100
100.	Nelson Hardy	11	10	1	7	$8,050
101.	Con Pederson	8	8	0	8	$8,000
	Nancy S. Ross	22	22	0	2	$8,000
103.	Lou Sabin	29	3	26	7	$7,950
104.	Nancy Kavanaugh	26	26	0	0	$7,800
	Michael Torch	19	19	0	3	$7,800
106.	Erik Agard	25	14	11	6	$7,733
107.	Mel Rosen	14	13	1	5	$7,550
108.	Michael S. Maurer	19	16	3	3	$7,350
109.	Myles Callum	22	22	0	1	$7,300
	Julian Lim	22	22	0	1	$7,300
111.	Tyler Hinman	22	17	5	2	$7,250
112.	Martin Schneider	12	12	0	5	$7,100
113.	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
116.	joon pahk	21	16	5	3	$6,950
117.	Daniel C. Bryant	9	9	0	6	$6,900
	Andrew Zhou	16	16	0	3	$6,900
119.	Carolyn W. Stewart	21	20	1	1	$6,850
120.	Seth A. Abel	11	11	0	5	$6,800
	Todd Gross	17	12	5	4	$6,800
	Pete Muller	18	11	7	6	$6,800
	Ned White	22	21	1	1	$6,800
124.	Kyle Mahowald	18	17	1	2	$6,650
125.	Sam Ezersky	23	14	9	2	$6,600
	Gerald R. Ferguson	22	22	0	0	$6,600
	Randy Sowell	22	22	0	0	$6,600
128.	David Phillips	20	19	1	1	$6,550
129.	Jim Hyres	21	20	1	1	$6,500
	David Woolf	17	17	0	2	$6,500
131.	Rand H. Burns	21	21	0	0	$6,300
	Lee Glickstein	25	3	22	6	$6,300
	James Mulhern	24	18	6	0	$6,300
	Sam Trabucco	14	14	0	3	$6,300
135.	Mary Lou Guizzo	20	10	10	3	$6,250
	Oliver Hill	16	14	2	3	$6,250
137.	Yaakov Bendavid	6	6	0	6	$6,000
	Bernice Gordon	21	19	2	0	$6,000
139.	Kelsey Blakley	8	8	0	5	$5,900
140.	Craig Kasper	15	10	5	4	$5,850
	Dave Tuller	14	11	3	3	$5,850
142.	Norma Steinberg	17	17	0	1	$5,800
	Alex Vratsanos	15	12	3	3	$5,800
144.	John Guzzetta	20	16	4	1	$5,750
145.	Adam Cohen	19	19	0	0	$5,700
	Ernie Furtado	12	12	0	3	$5,700
147.	Ross Trudeau	10	9	1	4	$5,650
148.	Norman S. Wizer	14	14	0	2	$5,600
149.	Robert Malinow	9	9	0	4	$5,500
	Fran Sabin	25	0	25	5	$5,500
151.	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
155.	David Kwong	18	13	5	2	$5,350
156.	Roy Leban	13	13	0	2	$5,300
157.	Ben Tausig	9	7	2	5	$5,200
158.	Susan Gelfand	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Charles E. Gersch	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Kristian House	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Jules P. Markey	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Thomas W. Schier	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Jeffrey Wechsler	17	17	0	0	$5,100
	Robyn Weintraub	17	17	0	0	$5,100
165.	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
170.	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
173.	Elizabeth A. Long	13	13	0	1	$4,600
174.	Kelly Clark	15	14	1	1	$4,533
175.	Holden Baker	16	14	2	0	$4,500
	William I. Johnston	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Ruth B. Margolin	8	8	0	3	$4,500
	Gene Newman	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Gary J. Whitehead	15	15	0	0	$4,500
180.	Andrew Ries	10	10	0	2	$4,400
181.	John Greenman	12	12	0	1	$4,300
	Daniel Raymon	12	12	0	1	$4,300
183.	Ethan Cooper	14	12	2	1	$4,250
184.	Alex Eaton-Salners	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Jason Flinn	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Frederick J. Healy	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Christopher Hurt	11	10	1	2	$4,200
	John Underwood	14	14	0	0	$4,200
	Michael Vuolo	14	14	0	0	$4,200
190.	Todd McClary	12	11	1	1	$4,150
191.	John Lampkin	9	9	0	2	$4,100
	Xan Vongsathorn	9	9	0	2	$4,100
193.	Alfio Micci	11	11	0	1	$4,000
	Paolo Pasco	12	10	2	1	$4,000