Minimal Gains in Faculty Pay

Median salaries for tenure-track faculty members at four-year colleges and universities were up 2.1 percent in 2012 -- matching the rate of inflation for the year, according to a study being released today by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Continuing a pattern of recent years, gains were larger for faculty members at private colleges and universities (2.4 percent) than at publics (1.9 percent). And also continuing the trends of many years, faculty salaries differ widely by discipline. For example, the average assistant professor of engineering earned about $80,000 while the average associate professor of foreign languages earned about $67,000.

The CUPA-HR study is one of two surveys on faculty salaries released each year. CUPA-HR compiles data by discipline, and includes only four-year colleges and universities. The other survey is by the American Association of University Professors, and will be released next month. That study features averages by institution and includes community colleges, and full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members. John W. Curtis, director of research and public policy at the AAUP, said that an early look at his association's data suggests similar findings to those of CUPA-HR, but perhaps with smaller gains.

Both studies exclude the part-time faculty members who on many campuses make up a majority of those teaching.

CUPA-HR last month released its annual survey of the salaries of senior administrators -- and their average gains for 2012 (2.5 percent at private institutions and 2.0 percent at public institutions) outpaced those of faculty members.

The past four years have seen private institutions outpace publics in the faculty salary study.

Percentage Increase in Average Salary for Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty

Gains were largest at doctoral institutions (2.5 percent), followed by baccalaureate institutions (2.1 percent) and master's institutions (2.0 percent).

While there is very little movement in the salary figures by discipline, these statistics are regularly eyed by faculty members -- especially those who feel that their disciplines are not sufficiently valued. As has been the case previously, the disciplines where faculty members earn the most are law, business and engineering. The ranks for the highest salaries are the same for public and private institutions.

For lowest salaries, there are differences between public and private institutions. At private institutions, the lowest salaries are in theology, parks and recreation and homeland security. At public institutions, the lowest are in visual and performing arts, English and history.

In the table that follows, there are some fields where some colleges may differ from others in the way they classify faculty members. So, for example, an English or history faculty member might be in the individual categories here at one institution and in "liberal arts" at another. Here are the figures for tenured and tenure-track faculty salaries:

Average Salaries by Discipline and Rank

For some disciplines, CUPA-HR this year also collected and published data on full-time, non-tenure-track faculty members. These figures only cover those employed in a single contract full-time, and thus excludes the adjuncts who work full-time but who are employed on a course-by-course basis.