In the private sector if there are no profits there is no executive compensation and pretty soon there are no executives and eventually no business.
Ever hear of a company called MCI they were losing their ass and their CEO got a bonus of $30,000,000. No there are gross problems in both the public and private sectors.
But $250,000 to a race industry employee is a stretch. Because in the university setting you can bet there's a hell of a retirement that goes with that.