Union bosses known for bashing the rich are often millionaires themselves, paid with dues taken from workers’ paychecks. Laborers’ International Union of North America president Terry O’Sullivan, who was paid $670,403 in 2014, slammed Charles and David Koch and other critics of big government in a speech last July. “Today’s Republican party has been hijacked, poisoned and taken over by a bunch of Tea Party maggots,” O’Sullivan shouted. “These anti-union, anti-worker bastards are not only crazy, they’re mean!”

When it comes to taking a huge paycheck from workers he claims to protect, O’Sullivan is in good company. Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the International Association of Machinists and other powerful unions have done the same for years. America’s union membership rate is in the midst of a decades-long decline, but labor union officials always seem to get paid. In 2013, 472 union officers and employees were paid more than $250,000 each. Excluding the MLB Players Association and other unions representing professional athletes, 497 union officers and employees were paid more than $250,000 last year — not a bad haul for representatives of teachers, blue-collar workers and government employees. Outside of the pro sports unions, 19 union bosses were paid more than $500,000 in 2014.

Some of the country’s top union officials work for specialized unions such as the Independent Pilots Association, and they represent predominantly high-income workers. Most do not. In addition to O’Sullivan, the Laborers’ union paid 42 officers and employees more than $250,000 in 2014. How many officers and employees were paid more than $250,000 by the other construction unions?

• United Association of Plumbers & Pipefitters: 56 union officers and employees paid more than $250,000 in 2014
• International Union of Operating Engineers: 34
• United Brotherhood of Carpenters: 28
• International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers: 15
• International Association of Machinists: 14
• International Union of Painters & Allied Trades: 10

Outside of the construction industry, several other major unions paid more than 10 officers and employees more than a quarter-million dollars each in 2014.

• United Food & Commercial Workers paid 40 union officials more than $250,000,
• International Longshoremen’s Association paid 17 officers and employees more than $250,000, and
• Transportation Communications Union paid 12 officers and employees more than $250,000.

America’s four largest unions — the National Education Association, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — take taxpayer money from the paychecks of teachers and other public workers.

• AFSCME paid 19 union officers and employees more than $250,000 last year.
• NEA had 10 officers and employees paid more than $250,000 each, w
• hile AFT had seven and SEIU had two.
• In some cases, local union officials were paid even more than their national union counterparts.
• AFSCME Local 3930 in San Diego paid finance director Gary Voice $680,721.
• UFCW Local 464 in New Jersey paid president John Niccollai $579,828.

In California, New Jersey and the 23 other states without right-to-work laws, workers can be forced to pay union bosses to have a job.

A list of America’s 100 highest-paid union bosses, filtered to exclude professional athletes’ unions, is included below. Payroll data come from the unions’ 2014 annual reports to the U.S. Department of Labor.