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	105	105	0	46	$63,700
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.	Paula Gamache	89	85	4	8	$31,350
20.	Peter Gordon	88	88	0	7	$31,300
21.	Jeff Chen	87	37	50	24	$30,500
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
29.	David Steinberg	83	67	16	6	$26,000
30.	Robert H. Wolfe	60	60	0	11	$25,700
31.	Joel Fagliano	54	50	4	13	$24,350
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.	Matt Ginsberg	43	36	7	16	$21,300
38.	Patrick Blindauer	56	36	20	14	$20,450
39.	Ian Livengood	55	51	4	6	$20,100
40.	Tom McCoy	30	30	0	15	$19,500
41.	Kevin G. Der	39	37	2	12	$19,450
	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	62	59	3	1	$18,500
46.	Timothy Polin	46	44	2	7	$18,400
47.	Mike Nothnagel	50	45	5	4	$16,350
48.	Zhouqin Burnikel	55	36	19	5	$16,100
	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.	Wayne Robert Williams	38	38	0	4	$14,200
58.	Bruce Haight	41	38	3	3	$13,950
59.	Dan Schoenholz	23	23	0	10	$13,900
60.	Edward Sessa	36	36	0	4	$13,600
61.	Victor Fleming	46	22	24	7	$13,350
62.	Jeremy Newton	17	15	2	13	$13,200
63.	Bryant White	29	29	0	5	$12,200
64.	Chuck Deodene	40	40	0	0	$12,000
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
	Allan E. Parrish	39	39	0	0	$11,700
69.	David Quarfoot	41	34	7	1	$11,600
70.	Tony Orbach	24	11	13	15	$11,550
	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
75.	Gary Cee	35	35	0	1	$11,200
	Damon J. Gulczynski	35	35	0	1	$11,200
77.	Peter Wentz	32	32	0	2	$11,000
78.	Daniel A. Finan	15	15	0	9	$10,800
	Stephanie Spadaccini	36	36	0	0	$10,800
80.	Dana Motley	31	31	0	2	$10,700
81.	Richard Chisholm	32	32	0	1	$10,300
	Greg Staples	25	25	0	4	$10,300
83.	Dean Niles	15	15	0	8	$10,100
84.	Raymond Hamel	27	26	1	3	$10,050
85.	Jonathan Schmalzbach	31	30	1	1	$9,850
86.	Tim Croce	33	32	1	0	$9,750
87.	Adam G. Perl	30	30	0	1	$9,700
	Bill Zais	15	10	5	10	$9,700
89.	Tracy Gray	24	19	5	6	$9,600
	Karen M. Tracey	32	32	0	0	$9,600
91.	Doug Peterson	40	17	23	2	$9,250
92.	Natan Last	25	20	5	4	$9,200
	Jacob Stulberg	26	26	0	2	$9,200
94.	Janet R. Bender	27	27	0	1	$8,800
95.	Finn Vigeland	16	12	4	7	$8,750
96.	Kevan Choset	27	24	3	2	$8,350
97.	Michael Ashley	11	11	0	7	$8,200
98.	Ashish Vengsarkar	15	11	4	7	$8,100
99.	Nelson Hardy	11	10	1	7	$8,050
100.	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
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.	Mel Rosen	14	13	1	5	$7,550
107.	Michael S. Maurer	19	16	3	3	$7,350
108.	Myles Callum	22	22	0	1	$7,300
	Julian Lim	22	22	0	1	$7,300
110.	Tyler Hinman	22	17	5	2	$7,250
111.	Erik Agard	22	13	9	6	$7,183
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.	Daniel C. Bryant	9	9	0	6	$6,900
117.	Carolyn W. Stewart	21	20	1	1	$6,850
118.	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
122.	Kyle Mahowald	18	17	1	2	$6,650
	joon pahk	20	15	5	3	$6,650
124.	Gerald R. Ferguson	22	22	0	0	$6,600
	Randy Sowell	22	22	0	0	$6,600
126.	David Phillips	20	19	1	1	$6,550
127.	Jim Hyres	21	20	1	1	$6,500
	David Woolf	17	17	0	2	$6,500
129.	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
132.	Mary Lou Guizzo	20	10	10	3	$6,250
	Oliver Hill	16	14	2	3	$6,250
134.	Yaakov Bendavid	6	6	0	6	$6,000
	Sam Ezersky	21	12	9	2	$6,000
	Bernice Gordon	21	19	2	0	$6,000
	Sam Trabucco	13	13	0	3	$6,000
138.	Kelsey Blakley	8	8	0	5	$5,900
	Andrew Zhou	15	15	0	2	$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.	Adam Cohen	19	19	0	0	$5,700
	Ernie Furtado	12	12	0	3	$5,700
146.	Norman S. Wizer	14	14	0	2	$5,600
147.	Robert Malinow	9	9	0	4	$5,500
	Fran Sabin	25	0	25	5	$5,500
149.	John Guzzetta	19	15	4	1	$5,450
150.	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
154.	David Kwong	18	13	5	2	$5,350
155.	Roy Leban	13	13	0	2	$5,300
156.	Ben Tausig	9	7	2	5	$5,200
157.	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
161.	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
166.	Robert Dillman	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Susan Gelfand	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Patrick Jordan	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Daniel R. Stark	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Jeffrey Wechsler	16	16	0	0	$4,800
	Robyn Weintraub	16	16	0	0	$4,800
172.	Elizabeth A. Long	13	13	0	1	$4,600
173.	Kelly Clark	15	14	1	1	$4,533
174.	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
179.	Ross Trudeau	8	7	1	3	$4,350
180.	John Greenman	12	12	0	1	$4,300
	Daniel Raymon	12	12	0	1	$4,300
182.	Ethan Cooper	14	12	2	1	$4,250
183.	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
188.	Todd McClary	12	11	1	1	$4,150
189.	Andrew Ries	9	9	0	2	$4,100
	Xan Vongsathorn	9	9	0	2	$4,100
191.	Alfio Micci	11	11	0	1	$4,000
	Paolo Pasco	12	10	2	1	$4,000