It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker. Please consider supporting our site by purchasing an account.

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	223	221	2	72	$117,000
2.	Elizabeth C. Gorski	219	219	0	67	$112,600
3.	Manny Nosowsky	246	244	2	29	$93,450
4.	David J. Kahn	173	168	5	43	$79,850
5.	Brendan Emmett Quigley	160	146	14	34	$69,350
6.	Rich Norris	186	186	0	18	$68,400
7.	Randolph Ross	103	103	0	46	$63,100
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	86	85	1	20	$39,650
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	100	89	11	5	$31,500
19.	Paula Gamache	89	85	4	8	$31,350
20.	Frank Longo	68	66	2	14	$29,900
21.	Peter Gordon	81	81	0	7	$29,200
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.	Jeff Chen	73	30	43	21	$25,950
27.	Robert H. Wolfe	60	60	0	11	$25,700
28.	Lynn Lempel	76	75	1	4	$25,450
29.	Joe Krozel	84	69	15	4	$25,400
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.	Randall J. Hartman	74	74	0	0	$22,200
35.	Martin Ashwood-Smith	78	68	10	0	$21,900
36.	Patrick Blindauer	56	36	20	14	$20,450
37.	Ian Livengood	55	51	4	6	$20,100
	David Steinberg	66	54	12	4	$20,100
39.	Matt Ginsberg	41	34	7	15	$20,000
40.	Trip Payne	42	41	1	10	$19,450
41.	Charles M. Deber	20	20	0	19	$19,300
42.	Eric Berlin	38	36	2	12	$19,150
43.	Kevin G. Der	37	35	2	12	$18,850
44.	Tom McCoy	29	29	0	14	$18,500
45.	Mark Diehl	57	56	1	1	$17,300
46.	Mike Nothnagel	50	45	5	4	$16,350
47.	Timothy Polin	41	39	2	6	$16,200
48.	Ed Early	53	52	1	1	$16,100
49.	Sherry O. Blackard	53	48	5	1	$15,850
50.	Michael Shteyman	49	44	5	3	$15,350
51.	Sarah Keller	52	50	2	0	$15,300
52.	Caleb Madison	32	29	3	9	$15,100
53.	Sidney L. Robbins	50	50	0	0	$15,000
54.	Andrea Carla Michaels	57	27	30	6	$14,700
55.	Wayne Robert Williams	38	38	0	4	$14,200
56.	Zhouqin Burnikel	47	30	17	5	$14,000
57.	Dan Schoenholz	22	22	0	10	$13,600
58.	Victor Fleming	46	22	24	7	$13,350
59.	Jeremy Newton	17	15	2	13	$13,200
60.	Edward Sessa	35	35	0	3	$12,600
61.	Richard Hughes	35	35	0	2	$11,900
	Will Nediger	21	21	0	8	$11,900
	Bryant White	28	28	0	5	$11,900
64.	Bob Peoples	39	33	6	3	$11,850
65.	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
68.	David Quarfoot	41	34	7	1	$11,600
69.	Tony Orbach	24	11	13	15	$11,550
70.	Brad Wilber	50	26	24	0	$11,400
71.	John Farmer	33	33	0	2	$11,300
72.	Samuel A. Donaldson	27	22	5	6	$11,200
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.	Bruce Haight	28	27	1	2	$9,650
86.	Karen M. Tracey	32	32	0	0	$9,600
87.	Adam G. Perl	29	29	0	1	$9,400
88.	Doug Peterson	39	17	22	2	$9,100
89.	Janet R. Bender	27	27	0	1	$8,800
	Damon J. Gulczynski	27	27	0	1	$8,800
	Peter Wentz	27	27	0	1	$8,800
92.	Tracy Gray	22	18	4	5	$8,450
93.	Kevan Choset	27	24	3	2	$8,350
94.	Michael Ashley	11	11	0	7	$8,200
95.	Ashish Vengsarkar	15	11	4	7	$8,100
96.	Nelson Hardy	11	10	1	7	$8,050
97.	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
	Jacob Stulberg	22	22	0	2	$8,000
101.	Lou Sabin	29	3	26	7	$7,950
102.	Natan Last	22	19	3	3	$7,900
103.	Nancy Kavanaugh	26	26	0	0	$7,800
	Michael Torch	19	19	0	3	$7,800
105.	Mel Rosen	14	13	1	5	$7,550
106.	Finn Vigeland	14	10	4	6	$7,450
107.	Myles Callum	22	22	0	1	$7,300
	Julian Lim	22	22	0	1	$7,300
109.	Tyler Hinman	22	17	5	2	$7,250
110.	Michael S. Maurer	18	16	2	3	$7,200
111.	Martin Schneider	12	12	0	5	$7,100
112.	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
115.	Daniel C. Bryant	9	9	0	6	$6,900
116.	Carolyn W. Stewart	21	20	1	1	$6,850
117.	Seth A. Abel	11	11	0	5	$6,800
	Pete Muller	18	11	7	6	$6,800
119.	Kyle Mahowald	18	17	1	2	$6,650
	joon pahk	20	15	5	3	$6,650
121.	Gerald R. Ferguson	22	22	0	0	$6,600
	Randy Sowell	22	22	0	0	$6,600
123.	David Phillips	20	19	1	1	$6,550
124.	Jim Hyres	21	20	1	1	$6,500
125.	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
128.	Oliver Hill	16	14	2	3	$6,250
129.	Todd Gross	15	10	5	4	$6,200
130.	Yaakov Bendavid	6	6	0	6	$6,000
	Bernice Gordon	21	19	2	0	$6,000
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
	Andrew Zhou	14	14	0	2	$5,600
142.	Robert Malinow	9	9	0	4	$5,500
	Fran Sabin	25	0	25	5	$5,500
	Alex Vratsanos	14	11	3	3	$5,500
145.	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
149.	Mary Lou Guizzo	17	9	8	2	$5,300
	Roy Leban	13	13	0	2	$5,300
151.	Ben Tausig	9	7	2	5	$5,200
152.	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
155.	David Kwong	17	12	5	2	$5,050
156.	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
161.	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
165.	Kelly Clark	15	14	1	1	$4,533
166.	Holden Baker	16	14	2	0	$4,500
	William I. Johnston	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Gene Newman	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Jeffrey Wechsler	15	15	0	0	$4,500
	Gary J. Whitehead	15	15	0	0	$4,500
171.	John Guzzetta	16	13	3	0	$4,350
172.	John Greenman	12	12	0	1	$4,300
173.	Ethan Cooper	14	12	2	1	$4,250
174.	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
179.	Todd McClary	12	11	1	1	$4,150
180.	Alfio Micci	11	11	0	1	$4,000

XWord Info Home 5.84 sec