The national average of university professors' salaries barely kept up with inflation in the 2000-2001 academic year, according to a report from the American Association of University Professors.
After four consecutive years of beating inflation, professor's salaries rose by only 3.5 percent this year, compared to a 3.4-percent rise in the Consumer Price Index, said the report's author Linda Bell.
"The real value of faculty salaries was scarcely higher than the academic year before — despite the strong performance of the economy," Bell said. "Moreover, the troubling salary disadvantage of faculty relative to similarly educated professionals persisted."
It cited two reasons that the increases in the real value of faculty salaries — wages adjusted for inflation — may be nearing an end.
The tightening of state budgets has put a squeeze on salaries at public universities. Coupled with the slowdown in economic growth, the report predicts salaries to only match inflation in the coming years.
"Recent history has taught us that even a mild recession — which many economists predict for 2001 — can adversely affect faculty salaries," it said.
Economics professor Elizabeth Bogan said that while professor's salaries may not increase as much as they used to, they are unlikely to decrease.
According to Bogan, the value of education has been on the rise, and the difference in salaries between high-school and college educated workers has been growing.
"The return for higher education has been very strong," Bogan said. "If anything, there is going to be an increase in demand for university education. That bodes well in general for university salaries."
The report notes that salary gaps between professors and other faculty members as well as between tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty are growing. The gap between salaries at private, secular universities and public universities is also on the rise.
Salaries at private, secular universities were 22.4 percent higher than at public institutions in 2000-2001, compared to 18 percent higher in 1994-1995. Salaries at elite universities such as Princeton, in particular, are significantly higher than those at other institutions, and the gap continues to grow.
University faculty are managing better than their colleagues at other institutions. While the average professor nationwide earns $80,860, the average salary for professors at Princeton is about $125,000.
Only three universities had higher average salaries for full professors: Stanford, Harvard, and Rockefeller University at the top of the scale.
Bogan offered one possible explanation for this phenomenon. The differences between the highest and lowest salaries in many professions — such as law — has been widening due to the "winner take all problem" she said.
"It has to do in part with increased communication and knowledge of who's good," Bogan said. The most desired professionals thus can command higher salaries. "I would not be surprised for [the salary gap] to widen in our profession too," she said.
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