Alabama state health officer receives 7% raise

The board overseeing the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) on Thursday voted unanimously to give State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris a 7% raise, effective Sept. 1.

According to state data, Harris currently makes about $336,000. The raise, a 5% performance-based raise and a 2% cost-of-living adjustment, amounts to an increase of about $16,800, for a total salary of $352,800. 

Harris is not a merit system employee, so the State Committee on Public Health must approve salary adjustments manually. The resolution was not on the committee’s agenda, and was brought by Dr. David Thrasher, a Montgomery-based physician.

“He was appointed here, and before he could even find out where the bathroom was, COVID hit. Despite the criticism of all of us and so much for that, he did exemplary,” Thrasher said. “For y’all who don’t know, this guy had to wear a bulletproof vest for a long time.”

Harris, who has served as state health officer since 2018, often stood by Gov. Kay Ivey during the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, urging people to get vaccinated. He told the Montgomery Advertiser in 2021 that he received threats and had to have law enforcement posted outside his home for a time. 

Harris last received a 2% cost-of-living adjustment in 2024. His last 5% merit raise was in 2023.

According to his biography on the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials website, he is a graduate of Harding University and the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, and he completed a fellowship in adult infectious diseases and earned a Master of Public Health from UAB. He began his infectious diseases practice in Decatur, Alabama, in 1996.