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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 $500.

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:	$500
Sunday:	$1,500

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	227	225	2	74	$187,000
2.	Elizabeth C. Gorski	219	219	0	67	$176,500
3.	Manny Nosowsky	246	244	2	29	$151,000
4.	David J. Kahn	187	182	5	44	$134,250
5.	Brendan Emmett Quigley	172	155	17	38	$118,750
6.	Rich Norris	186	186	0	18	$111,000
7.	Randolph Ross	114	114	0	50	$107,000
8.	Joe DiPietro	132	131	1	29	$94,750
9.	Nancy Salomon	185	69	116	36	$85,750
10.	Alan Arbesfeld	120	120	0	23	$83,000
11.	Cathy Allis	84	84	0	40	$82,000
12.	Richard Silvestri	84	84	0	26	$68,000
13.	Patrick Merrell	91	89	2	22	$67,000
	Fred Piscop	106	106	0	14	$67,000
15.	Jeff Chen	121	43	78	30	$61,000
16.	Peter A. Collins	114	101	13	7	$60,250
	Harvey Estes	116	71	45	20	$60,250
18.	Peter Gordon	100	100	0	8	$58,000
	Gregory E. Paul	116	116	0	0	$58,000
20.	Nancy Nicholson Joline	48	47	1	34	$57,250
21.	Byron Walden	93	78	15	13	$53,250
22.	Paula Gamache	89	85	4	8	$51,000
23.	David Steinberg	98	78	20	8	$50,500
24.	Lynn Lempel	93	91	2	4	$50,000
25.	Frank Longo	69	67	2	15	$49,000
26.	Barry C. Silk	92	86	6	3	$47,000
27.	Joel Fagliano	63	57	6	17	$46,000
28.	Jim Page	70	70	0	10	$45,000
29.	Joe Krozel	87	72	15	4	$43,250
30.	Matt Gaffney	58	57	1	14	$42,750
31.	Robert H. Wolfe	60	60	0	11	$41,000
32.	A. J. Santora	68	68	0	5	$39,000
33.	Bob Klahn	60	50	10	13	$38,500
34.	Martin Ashwood-Smith	79	69	10	0	$37,000
	Frances Hansen	40	40	0	17	$37,000
	Randall J. Hartman	74	74	0	0	$37,000
37.	Matt Ginsberg	46	39	7	17	$35,750
38.	Zhouqin Burnikel	70	50	20	6	$34,500
	Tom McCoy	33	33	0	18	$34,500
40.	Eric Berlin	42	39	3	14	$33,750
41.	Patrick Blindauer	59	37	22	14	$33,500
42.	Timothy Polin	53	51	2	7	$33,000
43.	Mark Diehl	66	63	3	1	$32,750
44.	Erik Agard	68	32	36	11	$32,583
45.	Ian Livengood	55	51	4	6	$32,500
46.	Kevin G. Der	41	38	3	12	$31,250
47.	Will Nediger	35	31	4	15	$31,000
48.	Trip Payne	42	41	1	10	$30,750
49.	Andrea Carla Michaels	73	30	43	7	$29,250
50.	Charles M. Deber	20	20	0	19	$29,000
51.	Bruce Haight	54	48	6	3	$28,500
52.	Ed Early	53	52	1	1	$26,750
	Mike Nothnagel	50	45	5	4	$26,750
54.	Sherry O. Blackard	53	48	5	1	$26,250
55.	Michael Shteyman	51	45	6	3	$26,000
56.	Sarah Keller	53	50	3	0	$25,750
57.	Edward Sessa	43	43	0	4	$25,500
58.	Caleb Madison	35	32	3	9	$25,250
59.	Sidney L. Robbins	50	50	0	0	$25,000
60.	Wayne Robert Williams	38	38	0	4	$23,000
61.	Alex Eaton-Salners	40	37	3	3	$22,250
62.	Dan Schoenholz	24	24	0	10	$22,000
	Ross Trudeau	38	28	10	6	$22,000
64.	Samuel A. Donaldson	34	25	9	8	$21,750
	Natan Last	33	24	9	8	$21,750
66.	Victor Fleming	46	22	24	7	$21,500
	Damon J. Gulczynski	41	41	0	1	$21,500
	Jeremy Newton	20	18	2	13	$21,500
69.	Gary Cee	40	40	0	1	$21,000
	Chuck Deodene	42	42	0	0	$21,000
71.	Brad Wilber	56	27	29	0	$20,750
72.	Peter Wentz	37	37	0	2	$20,500
73.	Tony Orbach	27	12	15	17	$20,250
74.	David Levinson Wilk	26	26	0	7	$20,000
75.	Tracy Gray	31	23	8	8	$19,500
	Richard Hughes	35	35	0	2	$19,500
	Allan E. Parrish	39	39	0	0	$19,500
	Bob Peoples	39	33	6	3	$19,500
	Bryant White	29	29	0	5	$19,500
80.	David Quarfoot	41	34	7	1	$19,250
81.	Jacob Stulberg	32	32	0	3	$19,000
82.	Sam Ezersky	33	24	9	5	$18,750
83.	John Farmer	33	33	0	2	$18,500
	Henry Hook	25	25	0	6	$18,500
85.	Doug Peterson	47	19	28	3	$18,000
	Stephanie Spadaccini	36	36	0	0	$18,000
87.	Dana Motley	31	31	0	2	$17,500
	Sam Trabucco	25	25	0	5	$17,500
89.	Richard Chisholm	32	32	0	1	$17,000
90.	Daniel A. Finan	15	15	0	9	$16,500
	Greg Staples	25	25	0	4	$16,500
	Finn Vigeland	18	14	4	9	$16,500
	Robyn Weintraub	33	33	0	0	$16,500
94.	Tim Croce	33	32	1	0	$16,250
	Raymond Hamel	27	26	1	3	$16,250
	Jonathan Schmalzbach	31	30	1	1	$16,250
97.	Adam G. Perl	30	30	0	1	$16,000
	Karen M. Tracey	32	32	0	0	$16,000
99.	John Guzzetta	34	26	8	1	$15,500
	Dean Niles	15	15	0	8	$15,500
101.	Trenton Charlson	26	25	1	2	$14,750
	Andrew Ries	24	23	1	3	$14,750
	Bill Zais	15	10	5	10	$14,750
104.	Janet R. Bender	27	27	0	1	$14,500
105.	Josh Knapp	24	24	0	2	$14,000
	Julian Lim	24	24	0	2	$14,000
107.	Kevan Choset	27	24	3	2	$13,750
	joon pahk	25	18	7	4	$13,750
109.	Nancy Kavanaugh	26	26	0	0	$13,000
	Nancy S. Ross	22	22	0	2	$13,000
111.	Ned White	25	24	1	1	$12,750
112.	Seth A. Abel	13	13	0	6	$12,500
	Michael Ashley	11	11	0	7	$12,500
	Stanley Newman	23	23	0	1	$12,500
	Lou Sabin	29	3	26	7	$12,500
	Michael Torch	19	19	0	3	$12,500
	Ashish Vengsarkar	15	11	4	7	$12,500
118.	Nelson Hardy	11	10	1	7	$12,250
	David Kwong	21	16	5	4	$12,250
120.	Myles Callum	22	22	0	1	$12,000
	Con Pederson	8	8	0	8	$12,000
	Andrew Zhou	18	18	0	3	$12,000
123.	Tyler Hinman	22	17	5	2	$11,750
	Michael S. Maurer	19	16	3	3	$11,750
	Mel Rosen	14	13	1	5	$11,750
126.	Mary Lou Guizzo	25	11	14	3	$11,500
127.	Carolyn W. Stewart	21	20	1	1	$11,250
128.	Victor Barocas	16	6	10	8	$11,000
	Gerald R. Ferguson	22	22	0	0	$11,000
	Kristian House	20	20	0	1	$11,000
	Alex K. Justin	14	14	0	4	$11,000
	Ruth B. Margolin	12	12	0	5	$11,000
	Martin Schneider	12	12	0	5	$11,000
	Randy Sowell	22	22	0	0	$11,000
135.	Todd Gross	17	12	5	4	$10,750
	Jim Hyres	21	20	1	1	$10,750
	Andy Kravis	22	7	15	5	$10,750
	Kyle Mahowald	18	17	1	2	$10,750
	Pete Muller	18	11	7	6	$10,750
	David Phillips	20	19	1	1	$10,750
141.	Daniel C. Bryant	9	9	0	6	$10,500
	Rand H. Burns	21	21	0	0	$10,500
	Jules P. Markey	21	21	0	0	$10,500
	James Mulhern	24	18	6	0	$10,500
	Derrick Niederman	7	7	0	7	$10,500
	David Woolf	17	17	0	2	$10,500
147.	Paolo Pasco	20	13	7	2	$10,250
	Alex Vratsanos	17	14	3	3	$10,250
149.	Lee Glickstein	25	3	22	6	$10,000
	Bernice Gordon	21	19	2	0	$10,000
	Oliver Hill	16	14	2	3	$10,000
152.	Adam Cohen	19	19	0	0	$9,500
	Andrew Kingsley	19	15	4	1	$9,500
	Norma Steinberg	17	17	0	1	$9,500
	Jeffrey Wechsler	19	19	0	0	$9,500
156.	Craig Kasper	15	10	5	4	$9,250
	Dave Tuller	14	11	3	3	$9,250
158.	Yaakov Bendavid	6	6	0	6	$9,000
	Kelsey Blakley	8	8	0	5	$9,000
	Ernie Furtado	12	12	0	3	$9,000
	Gilbert H. Ludwig	18	18	0	0	$9,000
	Lois Sidway	18	18	0	0	$9,000
	Norman S. Wizer	14	14	0	2	$9,000
164.	Michael Hawkins	20	13	7	1	$8,750
	Fran Sabin	25	0	25	5	$8,750
166.	Karen Young Bonin	11	11	0	3	$8,500
	Mark Feldman	11	11	0	3	$8,500
	Susan Gelfand	17	17	0	0	$8,500
	Charles E. Gersch	17	17	0	0	$8,500
	Jim Hilger	15	15	0	1	$8,500
	Roy Leban	13	13	0	2	$8,500
	Robert Malinow	9	9	0	4	$8,500
	Thomas W. Schier	17	17	0	0	$8,500
174.	Emily Carroll	13	12	1	2	$8,250
	Ryan McCarty	17	16	1	0	$8,250
176.	Robert Dillman	16	16	0	0	$8,000
	Adam Fromm	8	8	0	4	$8,000
	Patrick Jordan	16	16	0	0	$8,000
	Daniel Raymon	14	14	0	1	$8,000
	Daniel R. Stark	16	16	0	0	$8,000
	Ben Tausig	9	7	2	5	$8,000
	Arthur S. Verdesca	14	14	0	1	$8,000
	John Wolting	14	14	0	1	$8,000
184.	Holden Baker	16	14	2	0	$7,500
	Kelly Clark	15	14	1	1	$7,500
	Ethan Cooper	15	13	2	1	$7,500
	Kyle T. Dolan	13	13	0	1	$7,500
	Robert W. Harris	7	7	0	4	$7,500
	William I. Johnston	15	15	0	0	$7,500
	Evan Kalish	15	13	2	1	$7,500
	Pamela Amick Klawitter	7	7	0	4	$7,500
	Elizabeth A. Long	13	13	0	1	$7,500
	Gene Newman	15	15	0	0	$7,500
	Merl Reagle	7	7	0	4	$7,500
	Matthew Sewell	12	10	2	2	$7,500
	Gary J. Whitehead	15	15	0	0	$7,500
197.	Caitlin Reid	11	8	3	3	$7,250
198.	Gareth Bain	15	13	2	0	$7,000
	Kameron Austin Collins	15	13	2	0	$7,000
	Jason Flinn	14	14	0	0	$7,000
	Olivia Mitra Framke	8	8	0	3	$7,000
	John Greenman	12	12	0	1	$7,000
	Frederick J. Healy	14	14	0	0	$7,000
	John Lampkin	10	10	0	2	$7,000
	John Lieb	17	11	6	0	$7,000
	John Underwood	14	14	0	0	$7,000
	Michael Vuolo	14	14	0	0	$7,000
208.	Francis Heaney	10	7	3	3	$6,750
	Christopher Hurt	11	10	1	2	$6,750
	Todd McClary	12	11	1	1	$6,750
211.	Mike Buckley	13	13	0	0	$6,500
	Alfio Micci	11	11	0	1	$6,500
	Stu Ockman	13	13	0	0	$6,500
	Jim Peredo	9	9	0	2	$6,500
	Mark Elliot Skolsky	13	13	0	0	$6,500
	Xan Vongsathorn	9	9	0	2	$6,500
217.	Howard Barkin	10	8	2	2	$6,000
	Andrew Chaikin	4	4	0	4	$6,000
	Freddie Cheng	10	10	0	1	$6,000
	Roland Huget	12	12	0	0	$6,000
	Alan Olschwang	10	10	0	1	$6,000
	Grant Thackray	8	8	0	2	$6,000
	Bruce Venzke	19	1	18	2	$6,000
	Stella Zawistowski	18	4	14	1	$6,000
	Robert Zimmerman	12	12	0	0	$6,000
226.	Neville Fogarty	12	9	3	1	$5,750
227.	Sheldon Benardo	11	11	0	0	$5,500
	John R. Conrad	11	11	0	0	$5,500
	Gail Grabowski	13	9	4	0	$5,500
	David Liben-Nowell	12	8	4	1	$5,500
	Kurt Mueller	7	7	0	2	$5,500
	Mike Shenk	7	7	0	2	$5,500
233.	Peter Abide	8	7	1	2	$5,250
234.	Alex Bajcz	6	6	0	2	$5,000
	Diane C. Baldwin	8	8	0	1	$5,000
	Bill Ballard	10	10	0	0	$5,000
	Alex Boisvert	11	9	2	0	$5,000
	Derek Bowman	10	6	4	1	$5,000
	Shannon Burns	10	10	0	0	$5,000
	Mark Danna	6	6	0	2	$5,000
	Joe Deeney	10	10	0	0	$5,000
	Paul Hunsberger	8	8	0	1	$5,000
	Laura Taylor Kinnel	4	4	0	3	$5,000
	James R. Leeds	8	8	0	1	$5,000
	Eileen Lexau	10	10	0	0	$5,000
	Susan Harrington Smith	10	10	0	0	$5,000
	Mel Taub	10	10	0	0	$5,000
	Brian Thomas	11	9	2	0	$5,000
	Leonard Williams	8	8	0	1	$5,000
250.	Milo Beckman	10	9	1	0	$4,750
	Kevin Christian	13	6	7	0	$4,750
	Evan Mahnken	9	8	1	1	$4,750
	Tom Pepper	11	6	5	1	$4,750
254.	Michael Blake	14	4	10	0	$4,500
	Joel Davajan	7	7	0	1	$4,500
	Levi Denham	10	8	2	0	$4,500
	Alan DerKazarian	5	5	0	2	$4,500
	Michael J. Doran	7	7	0	1	$4,500
	Don Gagliardo	12	0	12	3	$4,500
	R. Max Hopkins	3	3	0	3	$4,500
	Christina Houlihan Kelly	9	9	0	0	$4,500
	Chris A. McGlothlin	7	7	0	1	$4,500
	Jean O'Conor	7	7	0	1	$4,500
	Lloyd E. Pollet	3	3	0	3	$4,500
	David Pringle	9	9	0	0	$4,500
	Gary Steinmehl	9	9	0	0	$4,500
	Bill Thompson	9	9	0	0	$4,500
	Stanley B. Whitten	9	9	0	0	$4,500
	Kathy Wienberg	7	7	0	1	$4,500
	Joy L. Wouk	9	9	0	0	$4,500
271.	Ashton Anderson	12	5	7	0	$4,250
	John Dunn	8	7	1	1	$4,250
	Pawel Fludzinski	7	6	1	1	$4,250
	Nick Grivas	9	8	1	0	$4,250
	Daniel Kantor	11	6	5	0	$4,250
	David Poole	9	8	1	0	$4,250
277.	Evan Birnholz	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Lisa Bunker	6	6	0	1	$4,000
	Bette Sue Cohen	6	6	0	1	$4,000
	Caleb Emmons	6	6	0	1	$4,000
	Greg Johnson	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Betty Jorgensen	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Steve Kahn	7	5	2	2	$4,000
	Daniel Larsen	9	7	2	0	$4,000
	Hal Moore	6	6	0	1	$4,000
	Christopher Page	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Glenton Petgrave	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Janice M. Putney	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Corey Rubin	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Herre Schouwerwou	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Bob Sefick	8	8	0	0	$4,000
	Lee Taylor	4	4	0	2	$4,000
	Raymond C. Young	8	8	0	0	$4,000

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