The percentage of faculty members receiving no salary increase this year is 21.2 percent, while 32.6 percent had their salaries reduced, with a median decrease (among those who saw a decrease) of 3 percent.
Here is more information. I see the overall trend as toward lower wages, with many cut-deserving people put at zero to shut them up. We'll see how long they stay there.
“while 32.6 percent had their salaries reduced”: are US academic pensions usually linked to final salary?
Social security payments were frozen this years as well, and for
the same reason (cost of living has not changed). Academics can
therefore join pensioners.
In my 21 years of university and college teaching (1963-84) I remember
only a few instances of a faculty member’s salary being reduced. Those
were extraordinary instances.
Does the 21.2 percent include folks whose benefits were reduced? Probably not.
At my alma mater an accounting professor earned $341k in 2009. The University and the State are facing massive budget cuts. I feel no sympathy if this indivual is requred to take a 20% (or more) reduction in salary. Frankly, I find it hard to believe any accounting professor is worth $341k/year. If he believes he can earn such a salary in the private market, more power to him.
It is also worth pointing out this is a salary in a “college-town,” and isn’t in a high-cost state like California, or anywhere in New England.
roversaurus
I come to a very different conclusion. Even in the midst of a recession when, if there were no sticky wages, wages would be falling, almost HALF of the professors saw a wage INCREASE. Only 20% saw no change and there was a very small change for the other 30%. Nothing commensurate with how hard colleges and universities have been hit. What gave way was staffing, rather than faculty salaries. As part of the 20%, I’m very thankful for wage stickiness.
Well, as with many of these posts on academic culture and trends… the differences between fields are enormous.
Look at the tables. Bizarre categories and extreme differences between fields.
So generalizing over all of academe… probably not that meaningful.
I’m an assistant professor, and my technician earns more than most of the assistant professor categories in this table (though less than I do)…
As a college student at a California State School I have experienced the effects of budgets as it leads to less classes offered and teachers being forced to take “furlough” days. To me it seems that the state is taking away the incentive for college professors to be in the classroom. With these furlough days, us students are already not being taught the entire curriculum for each class and as teachers continue to suffer pay cuts, thier incentive to get through the material decreases.
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