Professors' salaries third highest in nation

Full professors at the University earn an average annual salary of $151,100 — the third highest in the country, according to a report released last week by the American Association of University Professors.

This is a 3.7 percent increase over last year's average of $145,600, but inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index increased by 3.3 percent over the period covered, making the actual increase in buying power slight.

Salaries also rose slightly for lower-ranked faculty members. Associate professors averaged salaries of $95,500, an increase of 3.3 percent from last year. Nontenured assistant professors averaged $73,400, up 3.5 percent from last year. Non-tenure track professors averaged $58,400, up 3.4 percent from last year.

Rockefeller University, a biology and medical science graduate school in New York City, and Harvard are the top-paying institutions in the United States. Professional schools, where medical, law or business faculty often earn upwards of $200,000 a year, inflate average salaries at universities.

The AAUP study also emphasized the increasing use of part-time professors in academia and the salary differential between male and female faculty.

The proportion of women in academia nationwide falls at each level of seniority, and is lower in prestigious research universities than in lower-profile institutions like community colleges.

Part of the difference is accounted for by the greater representation of women in the lower-paying humanities fields, said John Curtis, the author of the report.

But factoring that out, "the most comprehensive studies I have seen show a four to five percent gap even controlling for just about anything you can think of, including publication productivity," he said.

In May 2003, a report by the task force on women in the sciences and engineering said, "extensive analyses by an outside consultant of the salary data for the last 11 years showed no significant differences between the salaries of women and men, once years since Ph.D., departmental affiliation, and rank were taken into account."

Curtis, however, said that the spread between the highestand lowest-paid salaries is increasing.

"Probably there are a few faculty who are getting higher salaries and the rest are keeping up with inflation," Curtis said.

Salaries also vary across departments and disciplines, with professors in technical fields such as engineering and computer science earning more than their humanities discipline counterparts because of greater competition for labor from the private sector.

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"Engineering, natural sciences, computer sciences — there probably is a significant factor of competition with the private sector," Curtis said.

Last year's report documented significant differences between disciplines nationwide; the national average salary of a visual arts professor was $96,000, while an engineering professor earned $147,100.

"Even with existing faculty, the University is very aware of market forces," Economics department chair Gene Grossman said, noting that the University might raise professor salaries to preempt offers from other universities.

Most professors receive small pay raises, while the University uses much of its salary increases to compete with other institutions for high-profile faculty, he said.

"In the long haul, keeping a good faculty means attracting people from the outside and keeping them from attracting your best people," he said.

The decision to hire faculty from another university is made by a committee in Nassau Hall, which authorizes a department to search for a senior faculty member to hire and then considers the person and salary the department recommends.

Faculty mobility is greatest in the social sciences, Grossman said, because it is difficult for scientists to move their labs and the job market is weaker in the humanities.

To set salaries, the dean of the faculty allocates a set amount of money for raises for each department in line with his priorities, and department chairs divide the money among senior faculty, Grossman explained.

Tenured faculty members decide the salaries of their nontenured colleagues. All salaries are reviewed by a committee, and ultimately by the president and the trustees.

He said that he decides raises "based on research production, teaching, service and collegiality," with emphasis on the first two.

Course enrollment also plays a role in a department's funding level, Grossman said. The current emphasis on small departments was partly motivated by a desire to take advantage of "underutilized resources" outside of the major departments, he explained, but added that a large change in student interest could cause departmental funding to shift.

Salary statistics for individual colleges will be available in fall.