Dive Brief:
- The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources’ 2015-16 salary survey found tenured and tenure-track faculty at four-year colleges got a median raise of 2.2% across disciplines, but there are wide disparities in base salary.
- Inside Higher Ed reports full professors of law make, on average, $145,732, while the average full professor in theology makes $79,838 — and new assistant professors in business still top six figures even though faculty of the same rank in English and history earn about $58,000.
- The situation is worse than it seems, as employees in the lower-paying fields generally spent more time getting their PhDs, going longer without a faculty salary and likely incurring more debt.
Dive Insight:
CUPA-HR also conducts annual salary surveys of faculty at two-year community and technical colleges, non-exempt staff, professionals, and administrators. The American Association of University Professors will release its version of the faculty salary survey, which combines four-year and two-year colleges, in April.
Besides the salary gap across disciplines, lower pay for adjunct faculty is a major concern in higher education. As colleges and universities shift away from tenure, relying more on adjuncts, some worry the quality of education necessarily goes down. Others, however, believe it makes institutions more flexible in a time of uncertain budgets. But, with continued success in adjunct unionization, the value proposition may change.