Rising faculty salaries outpace inflation

If some professors seem to be in high spirits these days, it may not be because of their students' exceptional work this semester.

According to an annual survey released last month by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, the average salaries for faculty outpaced inflation last year for the seventh straight year.

University faculty members were no exception.

Princeton faculty members' salaries are also following the current trend — the longest upswing in the survey's history.

The national survey reported a 4.8 percent rise in median faculty income for 2000-01, a decrease from the 5.0 percent growth reported increase for the 1999-2000 academic year. The Consumer Price Index measured inflation at 3.4 percent last year, up from 2.7 percent in 1999.

At Princeton, salaries have long surpassed the national average. In 1997-98, full professors saw their salaries rise 4.7 percent from the year before. Full professors made an average of $110,300 per year, associate professors made $65,400, assistant professors made $51,000 and instructors made $43,100 that year.

This compared favorably with the national averages for faculty salaries, which were $69,867, $51,219, $42,241 and $32,445 for each respective level.

In its 1999 report, the Chronicle for Higher Education reported that college presidents' median income including benefits was $175,389, about 4 percent over the findings for 1996-1997. President Shapiro made $456,170 including benefits that year.

Current salaries for this academic year were unavailable.

University Vice President for Finance and Administration Richard Spies GS '72 said that for the last six to eight years the University has kept administrative salaries relative to the competitive markets with little change.

Though these salaries might have been ahead of inflation, Spies explained that the discrepancy between administrative salaries and service workers' wages was due to workers' earnings being above the market from the start.

He described the difficulty in predicting the competitive market but maintained the University has adjusted in accordance with it.

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"We do look at inflation rates," Spies said. "But we don't look at them in as much detail as you might like."

Spies said the market for faculty members continues to be extremely competitive and that the University has been aggressive during the past several years.

"Salary increases [have been made] just to hold our position, more so than in any other market," Spies said. "So the circumstances dictate a lot."

"We are responding to different markets for different staff, some of them more competitive than others," he explained.

According to economics professor Elizabeth Bogan, the demand for low-wage workers has been in sufficient supply in part because of immigration and from the downsizing of manufacturing while the demand for top-level faculty and administrators exceeds the supply, resulting in the increase in wages.

Bogan, who was a guest speaker for Whig-Clio's Workers' Right debate last week, said she believes that the University could reevaluate its policies.

"Princeton doesn't have to participate in the national trend," she said. "There are good reasons Princeton should want to pay its lower end workers at the top of the range."