Age:34
Job: Competitive ballroom dancer and owner of Viva Dance! a New York City-style ballroom studio that specializes in competitive technique and social dancing
Income: $0. Because her studio is only a couple years old, virtually all the money she earned $70 an hour teaching and $100 an hour performing has been put back into the business.
Her former life: In New York, Rebecca was a principal dancer with the foremost salsa dance company in the world, the Eddie Torres Dancers. As a competitive Latin dancer, she has competed, performed and taught throughout the globe in places such as Greece, Turkey, Italy and Holland.
Who is the biggest celebrity you've ever worked with? Robert DeNiro, though my longtime coach is Louis van Amstel, the professional partner of Lisa Rinna and Monique Coleman on "Dancing with the Stars"
Spender or saver? I'm a bit of both. I love nice things, but I'd rather not pay extra, so I'm a big sales shopper
What's in her wallet: $40
Do financial risks scare you? "No, not at all. Starting my business was a huge financial risk, but failure isn't an option for me. I believe I can make this work.
What is the most you've spent on a ballroom dress? $2,500. It's yellow with lots of rhinestones.
What made you decide to open your studio in Cleveland? "I grew up here, and aside from the city being familiar and my family being here, I wanted to bring back what I learned in New York. I think having a studio like this is great for Cleveland
Thomas Mota
Job: Bounty hunter
Income: High $50,000s
On commission: Mota, who is paid by ABC Bail Bonds, earns 10 percent of the bond on the person he captures. An average bond, he says, is $1,000, meaning he takes home $100.
Strategy: "It's a game of chess" Mota says. "It's a thinking game." Yes, you need to physically apprehend someone, but you never get the chance if you can't find them.
His gear: A 9mm Smith & Wesson, handcuffs, badge, flashlight and bulletproof vest.
Before bounty hunting: Mota served on an Air Force military SWAT team, followed by a stint on a tactical response team at the Perry Nuclear Power Plant, where he was "bored out of my mind."
Stud: When Mota left his job at Perry, he happily ditched the required clean-cut look by getting a diamond stud earring, a tattoo and growing his hair long.
His financial goal: Buying a house in Florida, where he already has a condo.What's in his wallet: $150
In shape: Mota works out nearly every day. "Most of these guys are runners,"he says. He's got to be able to catch them with enough energy left to cuff them
Not like on TV: "We're not in it for the crazy stuff," he says. "We always try to get them to do the right thing. We try to talk them out of a house." If it doesn't work, that's when they kick the door in.
Biggest luxury: Every eight to nine months, Mota and his wife go on a vacation. Last year they went to Bora Bora, and their next planned trip is to Jamaica.
Megan Cuevas
Age: 35
Job: Realtor, Keller Williams Realty, Strongsville
Income: $140,000
Big very big connections: As one of the "preferred Realtors" of the Cleveland Browns, Cuevas has helped buy homes for some of the team's top draft picks. (But even if you're an everyday accountant, lawyer or upwardly mobile professional, she can help you find or sell your dream home, too.)
What football players want: Proximity to downtown, Berea and the airport, as well as open floor plans, finished basements and plenty of room for family coming into town
What's in her wallet: $75
Spender or saver: Both. While saving is important to her, Cuevas says she likes what she and will save up to buy it. For example, she completely renovated her Strongsville home, built in 1978, in a California contemporary style.
Learning early: Cuevas, a single mother, makes a point of teaching her three kids, ages 9, 11 and 13, about money. For unloading the dishwasher, doing laundry and taking the trash out, they each receive $10 a week. However, they must deposit half of it, along with any other money they receive as gifts, into their savings accounts. Each of the kids monitors their own bank statements, writing in the interest and calculating their savings.
The most she ever spent on a pair of shoes: Just recently, $198 on a pair of Donald Pliner strappy heels. She also likes spending money on ... worthy charities, especially health and wellness for children
Alexander Sandy Cutler
Chairman, CEO and president, Eaton Corp
$14.02 million
Why so high? In 2005, Cutler got a 4 percent raise thanks to his "consistent effective performance,"according to Eaton's proxy statement. His base salary, the report continues, is positioned just above the median salary level as reported in surveys of comparably-sized industrial companies.
Larry Hughes
Guard Cleveland Cavaliers
$13.36 million
High tops: At No. 25, Hughes is the only Cavalier who ranks in the top 25 in salary among NBA players, according to The Dallas Morning News
Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Center Cleveland Cavaliers
$9.44 million
Glen Renwick
CEO Progressive
$8.14 million
Braylon Edwards
Wide receiver Cleveland Browns
$7.74 million
The catch? Based on his 61 receptions in 2006, that $126,885.25 per grab.
Christopher Connor
Chairman and CEO The Sherwin-Williams Co.
$7.7 million
Henry Meyer III
Chairman, president and CEO KeyCorp
$5.96 million
David Daberko
Chairman & CEO National City Corp.
$6.12 million
LeBron James
Forward Cleveland Cavaliers
$5.82 million
Give the man his change: Forbes magazine estimated The Chosen One overall income at $26 million last year, which put him at No. 46 (double his jersey number) on the list of Top 100 Celebrities.
Kellen Winslow Jr.
Tight end Cleveland Browns
$4.72 million
Toby Cosgrove
CEO Cleveland Clinic
$1.3 million
Charlie Frye
Quarterback Cleveland Browns
$1.03 million
Anderson Varejao
Forward Cleveland Cavaliers
$945,600
Stephen Hoffman
President The Jewish Community Foundation
$430,000
Dennis Roche
President Cleveland Convention & Visitors Bureau
$287,000
William Christ
Head of school Hathaway Brown
$273,489
CEO Cleveland Schools
$260,000
Comps: Sanders is the highest-paid schools superintendent in the state. Cincy super is second, with a salary of $203,820. Still, it's far less than Barbara Byrd-Bennett made at her peak $325,300.
David Abbott
Executive director The George Gund Foundation
$236,808
Michael Benz
President United Way of Greater Cleveland
$224,789
Paycheck percentage: Benz salary comprises about 0.4 percent of his nonprofit yearly $50 million total expenses.
Ricky Smith
Director of port control City of Cleveland
$208,000
Tops in town: Smith is the highest-paid employee of the city of Cleveland.
Deborah Cook
Head of School Lake Ridge Academy
$169,950 Thomas Schorgl
Executive director Community Partnership for Arts and Culture
$157,500
Seth Ehasz
Small weapons repair
Honeywell Inc.
$145,000
Good pay, far away: Ehasz, who is from Lorain, is currently based in Kuwait. He previously served in the Marines.
David C. Estrop
Superintendent Lakewood City Schools
$142,883
Second job: Estrop earns an additional $26,265 for overseeing the West Shore Career-Technical Education District for students from Lakewood, Bay Village, Rocky River and Westlake.
Franz Welser
Music director
The Cleveland Orchestra
$139,750
Richard Markwardt
Superintendent Beachwood City Schools
$132,500
Frank Jackson
Mayor City of Cleveland
$127,619
Michael Schipper
Deputy general manager of engineering and project management Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority
$127,428
Makeover man: Schipper heads the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project.
Paul Stubbs
Chief of fireCity of Cleveland
$112,270
Dean DePiero
MayorCity of Parma
$91,520B
Out-earned: Both Parma police and fire chiefs make more than DePiero with their $97,500 salaries.
Jimmy Dimora
Commissioner Cuyahoga County
$89,955
Executive director Citizens Academy K-5 charter school in Cleveland
$85,301
City manager Chardon
$81,140
First job: Delivering papers for The Cleveland Press. Does he remember how much he made? heck no, he laughs. But I still remember every house on those streets that took the paper.
Barbara Byrd-Bennett
Executive-in-residence Cleveland State University
$80,000
Quite a cut: As CEO of Cleveland Schools, Byrd-Bennett earned $325,300 annually.
Christine Link
Executive director The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio
$78,530
Marcella Boyd
Cox Funeral director E.F. Boyd and Son Funeral Homes Inc., East Cleveland
$75,000
Sympathetic service: In this business, you have to be sweet, but you still have to get paid, says Cox, whose grandfather opened the home in 1905. It's a difficult balance.'s The average funeral costs around $6,000, she says, but their profit is only about $500.
Steve Loomis
President Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association
$74,000
Off the streets: Loomis, who has been at his new job as union head since January 2006, says he misses just being out on the road. The best part of his new post? Helping the guys. That's it in a nutshell.
Kevin TothQuality
control manager for the Anthony J. Celebrezze Federal Building modernization project Dick Corp., Cleveland
$63,000
Dana Irribarren
Executive director The Hunger Network of Greater Cleveland
$58,021
Food for thought: With 36 hunger centers across Cuyahoga County, the network serves approximately 58,000 people per month, half of whom are children. Her salary equates to about 8 cents per person served annually.
Lisa Holt
Registered nurse Community Health Partners, Lorain
$53,000
Her passion: I love science and human anatomy, but decided on nursing because I didn't want to go through all the school to be a doctor. And, besides, I like the more hands-on, direct patient care aspect of nursing.
Greg Violand
Professional actor for more than 20 years, Cleveland
$50,000
Less work: There was a time when my wife and I were both making six figures as full-time actors. Now we are making about half of that, Violand says, adding that over the past 15 years the amount of work for actors in Cleveland has decreased.
Debra Bradesca
Social worker Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services
$46,000
Raising the bar: By day, she makes the world a better place by investigating between 20 and 30 abuse and neglect cases a month. By night, she makes the world a happier place by serving up drinks four nights a week. I make more bartending than I do here, she says.
Brian Davis
DirectorNortheast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
$41,127
Satisfied with his salary: I think it is important, he says, to have a modest salary when working on poverty issues. Plus, I always hate to see such a disparity in salaries between the CEO and the entry staff. This is an obscene trend and should not take hold in the nonprofit sector.
Rebecca Zola
Nurse Century Oak Care Center, Middleburg Heights
$35,000
Vanessa Foote
Customer service Chesterton Marketing, Cleveland
$29,150
Connie Doman
Bartender Smoky Bones, North Ridgeville
About $24,000 a year
Breakdown: Doman makes $6.70 an hour, plus tips
Ashley Tunnell Shaunah Norwood Eric Jackson Emmanuel Onunwor Jane Campbell John Wheeler
Nursing
Title 1 parent coordinator Lorain schools
$21,653
Security lieutenant (part time) Quicken Loans Arena
$10,000
Convict FCI Morgantown, West Virginia
12 cents to 40 cents an hour.
Bet that old job looks pretty good right now: Onunwor, the former mayor of East Cleveland, was sentenced to nine years on charges of racketeering and tax evasion. While prison officials would not disclose exactly what Onunwor does behind bars, they say that most convicts work about 7.5 hours a day in such jobs as food service, plumbing or grounds keeping. At 20 cents per hour, Onunwor will have to work about 13,000 years to earn the $5.1 million in restitution he was ordered to pay East Cleveland.
PresidentJ ane L. Campbell Consulting
$0
Start-up: The former mayor of Cleveland (who made about $115,000 in 2003) says that, because she is investing in the business, she is not receiving a paycheck yet.
Mayor Village of Hunting Valley
How low can you go? Wheeler, who puts in about 10 hours a week as the mayor of the fourth wealthiest municipality in the country, tried to get on the village government's health plan, but did't qualify because he has no earned income. Go figure he jokes. In his prior, profitable life, he was an attorney, but declined to share his salary with us, saying only, I earned more than enough to put food on the table.
