| AAUP released the Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2022–23, which presents key findings from the AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey. Considering survey data in the context of the global pandemic, it found declines in real wages for a third consecutive year, a persistent salary gap between men and women, and minimal recovery from job losses for faculty members on contingent appointments.
Data collection for the survey concluded in March 2023, with nearly 900 US colleges and universities providing employment data for more than 370,000 full-time and 90,000 part-time faculty members as well as senior administrators at more than 500 institutions.
Key findings:
- Despite increases in average salaries of 4.1 percent for full-time faculty members from fall 2021 to fall 2022—the greatest one-year increase since 1990–91—real average salaries decreased 2.4 percent after adjusting for inflation.
- Real average salaries have declined sharply for three consecutive years, with a cumulative decrease of 7.5 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2022.
- Average full-time faculty salaries for women were 82.3 percent of those for men in 2022–23. The gender pay gap is greatest at the full professor rank.
- Part-time faculty members received an average of $3,874 per course section in 2021–22, a 0.8 percent increase from 2020–21 but an 8.9 percent increase from 2019–20.
- From fall 2019 through fall 2022, median presidential salaries increased 9.6 percent in nominal terms, compared with a 7.1 percent increase in average salaries for full-time faculty members during the same period.
- The number of faculty members on contingent appointments decreased by over 57,000 or 6.9 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2020, and had recovered by only about 25 percent in fall 2021.
- The number of graduate student employees plummeted when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, decreasing by 13,551 or 3.7 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2020 but then recovering by 90 percent in fall 2021.
The report and associated data can be found on the AAUP website.
AAUP Research Department |
