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October 13, 2011

Annual report compares faculty salaries at AAU publics

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

Professors, associate professors and librarians on the University’s Pittsburgh campus gained ground in fiscal year 2010 relative to the average salaries of their public Association of American Universities (AAU) peers, while assistant professors fell behind.

An annual report by Pitt’s Management Information and Analysis office, presented at the Sept. 30 University Senate budget policies committee (BPC) meeting, showed that among the 35 public AAU universities, Pittsburgh campus professors ranked No. 15, up two places from the prior year. Professors earned an average of $132,800 in FY10, up from $128,300 in FY09.

Associate professors’ average salaries ranked No. 13, up seven places. Their salaries averaged $88,400, up from $84,600 the prior year.

Librarians also gained, moving up four places to 16th on the list with salaries averaging $69,200. They averaged $66,600 the prior year.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

Assistant professors fell one spot to 28th place. Their salaries averaged $72,200, up from $70,100 the prior year.

The peer group analysis is based on salary data for full-time instructional faculty as found in the American Association of University Professors  (AAUP) annual report on the economic status of the profession. Librarians’ salary data come from the Association of Research Libraries’ annual salary survey.

Discussion of the report was hampered by the lack of copies for BPC members to review, although after the meeting they were provided with electronic versions of the report.

Vice Provost for Academic Planning and Resources Management David DeJong, a chancellor’s liaison appointee to the committee, commented on the report and on Pitt salaries in general.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

“When you look at the reasons for why we’re not doing as well in the assistant professor rank as we are in the professor and associate rank … we’ve been pretty aggressively in a buyer’s market,” DeJong said.

“Most of our buying has been concentrated in the non-tenure stream faculty level and assistant professor level and so it may mean that we’re relatively young in those two cohorts and that may account for some of that result,” he said. “Given that we were able to increase salaries this year, I think when the new report is available in the spring I expect to see further progress.”

BPC chair John J. Baker agreed that the drop in the average assistant professor salary likely was due to faculty turnover and new hires. “Usually when we have new hires, salary is down a little bit,” he said.

In conjunction with the discussion, Baker called attention to a graph from the 2011 Pitt Fact Book that illustrates Pittsburgh campus instructor salary trends for the past five years. The AAUP peer group analysis doesn’t compare pay for the instructor rank.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

Click on chart to download full-size pdf.

The Fact Book chart, also based on AAUP figures, showed that the average instructor salary in fall 2010 was $43,555, less than the fall 2006 average of $44,951. “I assume this reflects turnover,” Baker said. (The chart is available at www.ir.pitt.edu/factbook/documents/fb11.pdf.)

DeJong commented on Pitt salaries in general. “We were pleased to do a 2 percent increase over the last year in the face of a 19 percent decrease in commonwealth appropriations,” he said.

The increase “reflects the strong appreciation we have for our very dedicated faculty and staff and it also illustrates quite clearly our commitment to working hard to maintain competitive salaries in a difficult environment,” he said.

DeJong said the salary increase was made possible in part by a 2 percent cut in research in the central budget. “We suspended our research and development funds for this year and we’ve added yet again to a growing pile of deferred maintenance projects that we’re struggling to deal with,” he said. The University has avoided furloughs and layoffs, which DeJong labeled “notable.”

In addition, “Quite significantly, we’ve been able to be buyers in a very distinct buyer’s market for both faculty and staff. If you look at the quality of the hires we’ve made over the past couple of years, across the units, it’s very striking. We feel like we’re in quite an enviable position relative to our peer and aspiration groups,” DeJong said.

“We’re not satisfied with where we are. We want to keep working to make our salaries as competitive as we possibly can in a very competitive market and we’ll continue to do that.”

Pitt’s II-B regionals

Faculty at Pitt’s Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown regional campuses were reported as a single unit and ranked against a peer group of 242 public and private Carnegie Foundation category II-B (undergraduate baccalaureate-level) institutions in the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) Middle Atlantic, East North Central and South Atlantic regions.

For these schools, salaries were categorized by deciles, with the 1st decile representing the top 10 percent and the 10th decile representing the bottom 10 percent. Each decile included approximately 24 schools.

Professors

Professors at Pitt’s three II-B campuses ranked near the middle of the 5th decile with average salaries of $78,200, up from the 6th decile in the previous report. Salaries at the 24 schools in that decile ranged from $76,300 (Wittenberg University in Ohio and Elizabeth City State in North Carolina) to $79,800 (Carthage College in Wisconsin).

Professors’ salaries in that peer group ranged from $140,200 (Barnard College in New York) to $39,600 (University of the Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico).

Associate professors

Associate professors at Pitt’s three II-B campuses ranked near the bottom of the 4th decile with average salaries of $64,200, up one decile from the previous year’s report.

Salaries at the 24 schools in the 4th decile ranged from $63,700 (Kettering University in Michigan) to $66,700 (King’s College in Pennsylvania).

Salaries across the entire peer group for that rank ranged from $103,800 ( U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland) to $32,200 (University of the Sacred Heart).

Assistant professors

Assistant professors at Pitt’s three II-B campuses ranked at the top of the 6th decile with average salaries of $52,500, the same decile as in last year’s report.

Salaries at the 24 schools in that decile ranged from $51,500 (Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, Lakeland College in Wisconsin and Muskingum University in Ohio) to $52,500.

(Shawnee State University in Ohio, Saint Leo University in Florida and Lawrence University in Wisconsin averaged the same as Pitt.)

Salaries across that rank ranged from $81,800 (U.S. Naval Academy) to $26,800 (University of the Sacred Heart).

Pitt-Titusville

Faculty pay at Pitt-Titusville, a Carnegie Foundation category III (associate degree-level) institution, was not compared in the Pitt study but figures are available as part of the AAUP annual faculty salary report.

AAUP data showed that Pitt-Titusville faculty of all ranks averaged $54,900 in salary.

Pitt-Titusville professors averaged $60,600; associate professors averaged $58,300; UPT assistant professors averaged $51,300, and instructors at Titusville averaged $50,200.

—Kimberly K. Barlow

Filed under: Feature,Volume 44 Issue 4

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