University Times

Women faculty’s salaries here fall behind

To the editor:

Your accurate and informative story on average [faculty] salaries at Pitt (University Times May 11, 2006) missed one newsworthy fact: At all ranks, women’s average salaries are below the non-gender-specific averages you reported from the AAUP study.

You (and UT readers) might be interested to learn that Pitt falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to the wage gap between men and women faculty, at least compared to other doctoral-granting universities in Pennsylvania. The AAUP study publishes average salary data by gender and rank, and a few quick calculations show the following.

• At Pitt, the average salary for female full professors is 87 percent of the average salary for male full professors. That is, for every dollar of the average salary for male full professors, the average salary for female full professors is just 87 cents. At the University of Pennsylvania, the figure is 93 percent, at Penn State 89 percent, at Temple 92 percent, and at CMU 85 percent.

• At Pitt, the average salary for female associate professors is 92 percent of the average salary for male associate professors. That is, for every dollar in the average salary for female associate professors, the average male associate professor salary is $1.08. At the University of Pennsylvania, the ratio of women’s average salary to men’s average salary is 89 percent, at Penn State 93 percent, at Temple 92 percent, and at CMU 91 percent.

• At Pitt, the average salary for female assistant professors is 88 percent of the average salary for male assistant professors. That is, the average salary for female assistant professors is 12 percent below the average salary for male assistant professors. At the University of Pennsylvania, the ratio is 87 percent, at Penn State 91 percent, at Temple 100 percent (that’s equality!), and at CMU 89 percent.

These averages account only for rank and gender, not for division, department, research productivity, teaching effectiveness, number of years at the institution, years since terminal degree and other factors that might contribute to salary differences. The University of Pittsburgh could easily chart progress toward gender equality (at least within if not between units of the institution such as the School of Medicine, the law school, engineering or Arts and Sciences) as a supplement to the AAUP study. As Human Resources is unlikely to release the anonymous salary data (by rank, gender, department and years of service) or the results of such a study, however, reporting on the gender gap — which is included in the published AAUP data — should be integral to this annual UT story. If anyone tells you that 92 percent is too close to equal to be news, please have the other 8 percent taken from his paycheck and put into mine — I’m sure he won’t miss it.

The AAUP continues to support faculty in their struggles for academic freedom and for racial and gender equality at the University of Pittsburgh.

Lisa D. Brush

Associate Professor

Department of Sociology

and

2005-06 President University of Pittsburgh United Faculty/AAUP

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