Faculty Salaries Rise 3.8%; Salary Gap Grows Between Law and Other Disciplines

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) today released its annual report on faculty salaries, Financial Inequality in Higher Education: The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2006–07.  Here are some highlights:

• Overall average faculty salaries rose 3.8% between 2005–06 and 2006–07. With annual inflation at 2.5%, this is the first “real” increase in average salary since 2003–04.
• Investment earnings from institutional endowments are a growing source of inequality among colleges and universities. Institutions that have larger endowments can spend more on faculty and facilities and reap higher rates of return than institutions that have smaller endowments.
• Escalating salaries for college and university presidents continue to separate them from the economic realities faced by their faculty and staff employees. When presidents routinely receive salaries that are three times those paid to senior faculty members, the gulf is clearly widening.
• Topping even presidential salaries, the contracts offered to Division I football coaches are also raising eyebrows this year. This year’s report compares salaries for coaches, presidents, and faculty members and asks what the pay differences among them say about our institutional priorities. There is also growing financial inequality
• There is also growing financial inequality within the faculty. This year’s report takes a new look at disciplinary differences in salaries and calls for an open and frank discussion of the impact of salary disparities on faculty careers.

For press and blogosphere coverage, see:

• Associated Press
• Inside Higher Ed