Correction appended
The average full Princeton professor takes home $163,700 every year, according to an annual report by the American Association of University Professors' (AAUP). The University's overall national rank for professors' salaries fell from third to fourth this year.
Full professors at Rockefeller University, a biomedical science research institution in New York, are the nation's highest paid, earning on average $186,400 a year. Professors at Harvard came in second, with an average of $177,000, and Stanford overtook the University to rank third for the first time in six years, averaging $164,300 for full professors.
Despite a rise in faculty salaries above the rate of inflation for the first time in three years, the report highlighted increasing disparities within higher education on the basis of tenure and a professor's field of study.
It is the gap between tenured and untenured faculty compensation that is most dramatic at the University. Princeton ranked 22nd nationally in the AAUP's ranking of assistant professor salaries. Assistant professors average $79,100, and instructors make $62,300, while tenured associate professors averaged $105,000 each year.
AAUP research and public policy director John Curtis said assistant professors' salaries at the University "could be a problem — if the salaries really are relatively low for assistant professors — in attracting new faculty."
But Adam Maloof, an assistant professor of geosciences, said he has "never heard [the] complaint" that Princeton assistant professor salaries are too low. Though he received a higher-paying offer from the University of Chicago, Maloof chose to come to Princeton because the difference in salary, he said, played no role in his decision.
Thirty years ago, pay didn't discourage economics professor Uwe Reinhardt, who came to the University as an assistant professor. "[Salary] didn't turn me on," he said, "I didn't really care."
Reinhardt, who is also a columnist for The Daily Princetonian, said he thinks that salary is similarly unimportant to assistant professors who come to the University today. "I don't think [salary is] what really turns them on," he said.
Other factors, he added, such as cost of living, colleagues, research opportunities and location also play an important role in a professor's decision. The administration takes these factors, along with salary, into consideration when providing for the faculty.
"Our philosophy is to get the best professors at Princeton," Dean of the Faculty David Dobkin said in an email. "We recognize that to do so we need to provide the best conditions for these people. This includes compensation, benefits provided, the intellectual atmosphere at Princeton, living conditions here ... Certainly compensation is an important component here but not the only component."
One of the most important considerations for faculty is the cost of living. Last year's AAUP annual report included faculty salaries adjusted for the cost of living. After adjustment, salaries at universities in California, New York City and the Boston area dropped considerably.
Using the 2005-06 statistics, Stanford's average salary fell from $156,200 to $93,072, New York University's fell from $144,000 to $70,098 and Harvard's from $168,700 to $119,187, while Princeton's only fell from $156,800 to $120,083.
Maloof said he is able to live one town over from the University and has a comfortable 15-minute commute everyday.
"I have colleagues at the University of [California at] Santa Barbara, who on two professors' salaries cannot live within in an hour of the university," he said. "Even though their salary is not that low compared to different places, it is unacceptable. I get the same kind of response from people in Cambridge [at Harvard and MIT]."
Another factor is the academic community universities offer. Assistant professors are still in what Reinhardt called "the investment phase" of their careers. They are likely to accept jobs at universities that give them opportunities to work with senior faculty in their fields of interest.
"There you get the best mentoring, the best insights in seminars and so on," Reinhardt said. "Having good colleagues, having good mentors, being involved perhaps even as coauthors in their research, is a lot more important."
Another benefit to living in Princeton is the University's proximity to New York, Washington and Philadelphia, Reinhardt said. Professors can hop on the train to attend seminars in New York and be back in Princeton that night.
Departmental disparities
The report also found that differences in salaries between departments are increasing. Law and legal studies professors make 154 percent more than the average English professor, with those teaching business administration and management coming in second and economics third. Foreign language and literature was lowest in the available rankings.
The University declined to disclose salaries for individual professors or salaries broken down by department because "compensation for faculty members is highly specific to the individual faculty member," University spokeswoman Cass Cliatt '96 said.
"There may be someone who comes to the University and part of the compensation, or part of the agreement I should say, is [that] you set up a lab for that person," Cliatt said. "It's not a simple matter of salary for the faculty members ... they have to ensure that they have the resources they need."
Salaries in business, economics and legal studies must be competitive because of the demand for experts in these subjects outside of academia. Medical schools, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies compete for biologists, while aeronautical engineers can find good work at NASA or Boeing.
On the other hand, "the Modern Language Association usually has a huge surplus for people looking for jobs," Reinhardt said.
"In different fields, the laws of supply and demand affect the market, and so [they affect] the salary levels," Dobkin said. "We often respond to these market forces."
Correction
The original version of this article stated that full-time professors at Princeton earn $163,700 annually. In fact, full professors who have tenure earn that amount, while full-time faculty earn an average of $126,900 per year. The Daily Princetonian regrets the error.Read More
Joseph ’25 next Young Alumni Trustee in 21 percent turnout election
Vitus LarrieuGil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
Gil Joseph ’25 won the Young Alumni Trustee election, which saw 21 percent turnout. Joseph, Stephen Padlo ’25 and Ben Wachspress ’25 competed in the final round of elections after advancing from a notably large primary in April.
‘A brilliant young contemporary writer and a beautiful human being’: Remembering Lauren Blackburn ’26
Victoria Davies and Caitlyn TabladaBlackburn was found deceased by authorities on April 25, several days after he was reported missing. He was 23 years old at the time of his death and is remembered by friends and mentors as a brilliant writer, voracious learner, and loving friend. A family obituary said he passed away after a “courageous battle with bipolar disorder.”
Blackburn was found deceased by authorities on April 25, several days after he was reported missing. He was 23 years old at the time of his death and is remembered by friends and mentors as a brilliant writer, voracious learner, and loving friend. A family obituary said he passed away after a “courageous battle with bipolar disorder.”
GSG approves audit, delays budget approval after ‘insufferable’ meeting
Nikki HanThe final Graduate Student Government (GSG) meeting for the semester lasted more than an hour and a half when discussions over the proposed budget for the next year and a proposed Student Life Fee of $100 turned controversial.
The final Graduate Student Government (GSG) meeting for the semester lasted more than an hour and a half when discussions over the proposed budget for the next year and a proposed Student Life Fee of $100 turned controversial.