Chancellor and Vice President Phyllis Wise will be enjoying one of the highest paid positions in the Big Ten, with her $500,000 annual salary being the second highest among other second-in-commands at Big 10 schools.

In base salary, Wise is the second highest paid in equivalent positions.

But a closer look at Wise’s contract shows that five years down the road, she will possibly be looking at a $1 million paycheck, before taxes.

This is through a “retention incentive,” a form of compensation that tacks on $100,000 every year to her salary, but only actually paid out once every five years. If Wise takes a job elsewhere or ends up fired before 2016, that accumulated $500,000 is forfeit.

Universities aren’t hiding the fact that this delayed compensation — less active in the public eye than a base salary — is meant to compel employees to stick around.

“It’s intended to incentivize individuals who receive those compensation packages to make a commitment to the institution beyond the typical one-year notice of appointment that academic professionals are accustomed to,” said University spokesman Tom Hardy said. “It provides an incentive to a longer term commitment, from both the individual and the institution, provided there continues to be a strong and productive relationship.”

Such deferred compensation plans are fairly common at the Big Ten presidential level.

While University President Michael Hogan receives a relatively modest compensation plan in addition to his $651,000 annual salary ($225,000 every five years, as opposed to Ohio State University President E. Gordon Gee, who receives that much every September in addition to his $818,167 salary), Wise is only one of three Big Ten provost or chancellors receiving a significant amount of income from a deferred compensation plan.

But retention incentives haven’t been a fail-safe in ensuring the long investment of a top administrator.

A University of Michigan provost gave up a sizable piece of retention package when she left for the University of Virginia several years ago. Currently, the new Michigan provost, Phil Hanlon, is receiving a $75,000 deferred package and a significantly higher salary than his predecessor.

And while Wise wasn’t in a retention bonus program at her former job at the University of Washington, Hogan was receiving such benefits from the University of Connecticut as its president.

But Illinois brushed this incentive away, awarding $45,000 in Hogan’s first month on campus for “foregoing a retention incentive that he would otherwise have been entitled to receive” from Connecticut, according to University Board of Trustees materials.

Many universities, Big Ten institutions among them, are tacking on these packages after recruiting presidents and provosts. Former University President B. Joseph White was pledged $475,000 after five years of service — but White, who was hired in 2005, resigned in Sept. 2009, just months before his incentive would have matured.

Former Purdue provost, Sally Mason, is now the president of the University of Iowa, which is offering its president $150,000 every year in deferred payment.

However, this isn’t always the case. Outgoing Indiana University provost Karen Hanson, headed for the number two position at the University of Minnesota, will not receive a retention incentive like her predecessor when she takes her Minneapolis-St. Paul job in February.

But in taking Wise’s compensation, on the whole, even though falling short in dollar amount on her annual paycheck than Ohio State University provost Joseph Alutto (currently earning $527,850 this year), her contract provides for the highest income a Big Ten campus leader earns — provided she stays vice president and chancellor for the next five years.

“We go year by year, and I’m not here to try to get the retention bonus,” Wise said. “I certainly hope that my tenure is long and good, and this University can look back after I retire and say, ‘She was worth every penny.’”