University Times

Average salaries for most ranks of instructional faculty on the University’s Pittsburgh campus moved up in the University’s annual comparison of faculty pay at the 34 public Association of American Universities (AAU) institutions.

Pittsburgh campus professors ranked No. 16 in the 2014-15 academic year, the same as in 2013-14; associate professors moved up two spots to No. 17; assistant professors moved up one, to No. 26; instructors rose one place to No. 19. However, lecturers fell to No. 28, down one place from the prior year.

Librarians’ salaries also continued to climb in relation to their peers at AAU/Association of Research Libraries (ARL) schools, moving up one place to No. 8, according to the annual salary report by Pitt’s Institutional Research office.

Robert Goga, director of institutional research, presented the 2014-15 peer group analysis of average salaries of faculty and librarians Sept. 18 to the University Senate budget policies committee (BPC).

Median targeted

Executive Vice Provost David DeJong  told BPC the University aims to be at the median of the public AAU peer group.

He acknowledged that the University has yet to reach that target for instructor and lecturer salaries, which historically have ranked at or near the bottom of the group.

“In both of these categories we were not where we want to be in terms of the median,” DeJong said, adding that the provost has prioritized boosting those salaries. “In the past three years we’ve put in significant salary money earmarked to get our instructor and lecturer salaries where we’re targeting,” he said. “We’re not done yet but we have been making progress and that will continue.”

DeJong noted that a related initiative is to convert visiting professor positions that had been renewed many times into full-time positions. “We’ve converted about 100 positions across the University,” he said. “We feel like the professors will be more connected to the school. It’s more fair treatment for them and it’s better for our students. It’s just a win-win.”

The 2014-15 report

The annual faculty salary report includes all full-time faculty for whom at least 50 percent of their major regular assignment is instruction, including release time for research. Medical school faculty are excluded. Faculty salaries are converted to a nine-month equivalent using a factor of 0.81818 for 12-month salaries.

Not accounted for in the comparison are faculty members’ age, tenure status or discipline areas, or institutions’ regional cost of living differentials.

DeJong said his office’s annual cost-of-living-adjusted salary report would be presented at BPC’s Oct. 16 meeting.

The report presented Sept. 18 is based on data from the Association of American University Professors (AAUP) 2014-15 economic status of the profession report (www.aaup.org/reports-publications/2014-15salarysurvey).

Librarians’ salaries are based on the ARL annual salary survey.

Pittsburgh campus faculty salaries

• Professors

The 456 Pittsburgh campus professors, who earned an average of $144,200, ranked No. 16, the same as last year.

Salaries for the professor rank among the 34 peer schools ranged from a high of $181,000 at the University of California-Los Angeles to a low of $121,900 at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Pitt professors’ average salary increased 2.9 percent, trailing the AAU public university peer group’s median increase of 3.3 percent.

• Associate professors

Associate professors on the Pittsburgh campus, who averaged $96,400, placed No. 17, up from 19th in last year’s ranking. Pay for UCLA faculty again ranked No. 1, averaging $117,700; the University of Missouri-Columbia again was No. 34, averaging $80,700.

Pitt’s associate professors averaged a 3.7 percent increase, above the peer group’s 2.7 percent median increase.

• Assistant professors

Pitt’s assistant professors, who averaged $80,900, ranked

No. 26, up from 27th in the prior report. Assistant professors at the University of California-Berkeley topped the listing for this rank, averaging $103,000; the University of Missouri-Columbia was No. 34, averaging $67,500.

The average pay increase of 4 percent for Pitt’s 494 assistant professors was higher than the rank’s 3.5 percent median.

• Instructors

Of 22 schools that submitted salary data for instructors, Pitt ranked No. 19 (up from No. 20) with an average

salary of $47,100. Ohio State’s five full-time instructors averaged $96,700, placing them at No. 1. The 71 instructors at the University of Arizona were at the bottom of the peer group, averaging $38,400.

Pitt instructors’ average pay rose 2.6 percent, below the peer group’s 3.1 percent median increase.

• Lecturers

Pittsburgh campus lecturers ranked No. 28 among 29 schools that submitted data. In the 2013-14 ranking they were last among the 27 schools that submitted salary data for the rank.
Pitt lecturers’ average salary was $49,800.

The University of California-San Diego ranked No. 1, averaging $80,800; at No. 29 was Texas A&M, where lecturers averaged $47,500.

Average salaries for Pittsburgh campus lecturers rose 7.1 percent, well above the peer group median increase of 3.2 percent.

• Librarians

Salaries for librarians on the University’s Pittsburgh campus rose to No. 8 in 2014-15, continuing a five-year climb in the rankings.

Once among the lowest in comparison with their peers at public AAU/ARL schools, Pitt’s librarians broke into the top 10 in the 2012-13 peer group survey and ranked No. 9 last year.

The most recent survey showed Pitt’s 54 librarians earned an average salary of $81,200.

At the top of this year’s ranking was the University of California-Davis, where 33 librarians earned an average of $99,800. At the bottom was the University of Missouri-Columbia, where 40 librarians averaged $59,500.

The average pay for Pitt librarians increased 4.1 percent, well above the peer group median of 2.1 percent.

Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown faculty salaries

Pitt compares faculty pay at its three baccalaureate regional campuses with a peer group of Carnegie category IIB schools in the three AAUP regions that border Pennsylvania. The comparison schools may be public, private-independent, church-related or proprietary. The 219 institutions are grouped by average salary into deciles, with the first decile representing the top 10 percent.

Faculty pay at Pitt-Titusville, a Carnegie category III (associate’s degree-level) school, was not compared in the report.

• Professors

The 27 professors on the Bradford, Greensburg and Johnstown campuses averaged $83,100, placing them near the bottom of the 5th decile — up from their spot near the top of the sixth decile in the 2013-14 report. Salaries in the 5th decile ranged from $86,600 at Eckerd College and Mount Union University to $82,700 at Knox College and Alvernia University.

Professors at Barnard College had the highest average salary, $154,100, among the 219 schools in the peer group. Ohio Valley University was at the bottom of the 10th decile. Its professors averaged $49,900.

• Associate professors

Pitt’s 100 associate professors on the three regional campuses averaged $69,600,  tied with Spelman College, placing them near the bottom of the 4th decile — an improvement from their spot at the top of the 5th decile in the prior year’s report.

Salaries in the 4th decile ranged from $71,300 at CUNY’s three campuses to $68,800 at Notre Dame Maryland University and Illinois Wesleyan University.

Across the peer group overall, associate professors at Barnard College had the highest average salary, $111,000; associate professors at Lees-McRae College were at the bottom, averaging $43,100.

• Assistant professors

The 97 assistant professors on the three Pitt regional campuses averaged $56,700, placing them at the middle of the 6th decile — up from their place near the bottom of the 6th decile in the prior comparison.

Average salaries in the 6th decile ranged from a high of $57,300 at Clayton State University, Bethune Cookman University, Ohio Wesleyan University and Centenary College to a low of $55,500 at Randolph College and Muskingum University.

Overall, assistant professors at the University of Richmond were the highest paid, averaging $83,500. Assistant professors at Lees-McRae College ranked lowest, averaging $39,100.

• Instructors/lecturers

A total of 143 institutions provided instructor and/or lecturer salary data.

In this group, Pitt’s 45 regional faculty — all instructors — ranked near the top of the 5th decile, tied with Knox College at $50,300. At the top of the decile was Lycoming College, where instructors averaged $51,000; at the bottom was Ohio Northern University, where they averaged $49,500.

Greensboro College’s three instructors were at the top of the overall ranking, averaging $110,400. At the bottom of the 10th decile were 15 lecturers at Belmont Abbey College, who averaged $20,300.

In the 2013-14 comparison, Pitt’s 49 regional faculty in the instructor rank likewise placed near the top of the 5th decile.

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The entire peer group analysis report is posted at www.utimes.pitt.edu/documents/PeerAnalysisReport2014-15.pdf.

—Kimberly K. Barlow