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March 6, 2008

What we earn: Annual report details salaries

Pitt’s employees are a diverse group, and one of the areas in which that diversity is measurable is salaries.

The University Senate’s budget policies committee (BPC) on Feb. 22 received Pitt’s Management Information and Analysis office’s annual report of the mean (or average) and median salaries of full-time Pitt employees. The median is the salary for the employee whose pay falls in the middle of the group — with an equal number of salaries above and below.

The fiscal year 2007 report offers a snapshot of faculty and staff salaries as of Oct. 31, 2006, for each responsibility center, categorized by faculty rank or staff job classification.

BPC chair Stephen Carr noted that the report contains plenty of useful information, but a single year’s report can be skewed by a number of factors. For instance, an area in which a large number of people were hired at a certain level or rank could display a change; likewise, there can be differences when comparing areas that have a lot of turnover with more stable departments.

Longtime committee member Philip Wion noted that the gap between faculty salaries in the natural sciences and social sciences has vanished.

Vice Provost of Academic Planning and Resources Management Robert Pack said there has been more of an emphasis on the merit component of salary pool increases in the past decade or so, yielding a wider distribution of discretion being applied to salaries and, in the last six years, an additional emphasis on market factors.

For instance, Carr noted that in recent years assistant professors in the Katz Graduate School of Business on average have been paid more than associate professors. “That has to do with market hiring,” he said.

Higher salaries in accounting and finance impact those averages, Pack said. Another area in which market factors influence Pitt employees’ pay is in staff salaries at the regional campuses, which are located in areas where the University tends to be among the largest and best employers, allowing the University to hire more economically, he said. For staff in Pittsburgh, salary categories are more of a driver — information technology staff or accountants, for instance, are likely to be more highly compensated, Pack said.

—Kimberly K. Barlow


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