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April 16, 1998

Average salaries range from low of Human Resources staff to high of UPMC administrators, execs

Average salaries among the ranks of Pitt full-time employees last year ranged from $13,531 for the 17 technical, skilled and service workers in the Office of Human Resources to $155,396 for six UPMC Health System executives, administrators and managers whose salaries were paid by the University.

Those highs and lows are included in a report released last week by the Pitt Office of Institutional Research in accordance with Pennsylvania's Financial Disclosure Law.

The report reveals mean (average) and median (mid-range) salaries for major ranks of full-time, non-union faculty, staff and administrators in each Pitt responsibility unit as of Oct. 31, 1997.

It was the second consecutive year that Human Resources technical, skilled and service staff were Pitt's lowest-paid employee group while University-compensated UPMC officials were the highest-paid.

"Salary" as defined by the report includes all contract salary paid by the University, whether the source was Pitt hard money salary funds, a research grant awarded to Pitt, an endowment or other source.

Salaries for faculty with 12-month contracts were converted to standard (nine-month) academic contracts.

The report attributes employees' salaries to the responsibility centers through which their employee records were processed. For example, the report lists 53 employees for the Office of the Chancellor, but that total includes Chancellor Mark Nordenberg and his staff as well as employees in other offices that report directly to Nordenberg, such as Governmental Relations.

The report is inconsistent in its classifications. For example, some schools categorize academic department chairpersons as "executive, administrative and managerial" personnel, while other schools classify chairpersons according to their faculty ranks.

On the other hand, deans are consistently listed as executive, administrative and managerial employees.

To avoid revealing individuals' salaries, the report does not list salaries for ranks and job classes where there were three or fewer employees. As a result, salary data is sketchy for some offices, especially smaller ones.

Staff/administration highs and lows The report divides staff into four categories: executive, administrative and managerial; other professionals; secretarial and clerical; and technical, skilled and service.

It lists 14 units where executives, administrators and managers earned both mean and median salaries exceeding $60,000. Besides the UPMC administration, those units included: The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences (six executives, administrators and managers) — $132,173 average, $132,401 mid-range. Among those employees was Senior Vice Chancellor Thomas Detre, whose salary is $438,000.

The Office of the Chancellor (12) — $104,271 average, $85,110 mid-range. The 12 included Chancellor Nordenberg, who earns $232,000 and could get a bonus of up to $30,000 for meeting goals set by the Board of Trustees. Also among those employees was Assistant Chancellor Jerome Cochran (salary: $149,500).

The Office of the Provost (53) — $90,270 average, $79,950 mid-range. This included Provost James Maher, who earns $175,000.

The Office of the General Counsel (seven) — $85,315 average, $79,524 mid-range. The seven included Lewis Popper, who resigned as general counsel in February and plans to leave Pitt in August. Popper earned $134,750 as general counsel; Pitt's administration won't reveal his current salary. (Pitt announces only the salaries of its seven senior officers, as required by federal law.) Assistant Chancellor Cochran assumed direction of the Office of the General Counsel March 1.

The Office of Budget and Administration (19 executives, administrators and managers) — $70,616 average, $72,108 mid-range.

The Office of Human Resources (10) — $69,803 average, $71,233 mid-range.

The Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (four) — $68,235 average, $67,335 mid-range.

The Office of Facilities Management (nine) — $66,829 average, $60,660 mid-range.

The Katz Graduate School of Business (six) — $65,762 average, $64,764 mid-range.

The Office of Computing and Information Services (25) — $65,722 average, $60,900 mid-range.

The Office of Student Affairs (12) — $64,360 average, $62,208 mid-range.

The Titusville campus (four) — $61,230 average, $60,726 mid-range.

The Office of the Associate Vice Chancellor for Business (20) — $60,516 average, $60,366 mid-range.

Staff in four units earned mean and median salaries of less than $16,000. In addition to the 17 technical, skilled and service employees in Human Resources, those groups included: The Titusville campus (eight secretarial and clerical employees) — $15,668 average, $14,796 mid-range.

The Office of the Senior Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences (13 secretarial and clerical staff) — $15,446 average, $12,540 mid-range.

The School of Education (four technical, skilled and service workers) — $13,613 average, $13,392 mid-range.

Faculty highs and lows Professional and Health Sciences schools, especially those with large proportions of senior professors, had the highest-paid faculties. The four regional campuses had the lowest paid faculties, on average.

Faculties at five schools earned average and mid-range salaries exceeding $60,000: The School of Medicine employed 1,357 faculty members who earned average and mid-range salaries of $99,593 and $90,000, respectively.

That total included 283 full professors ($142,306 average, $125,856 mid-range), 339 associate professors ($100,162 average, $90,000 mid-range), 646 assistant professors ($85,585 average, $81,818 mid-range), 82 instructors ($46,787 average, $35,107 mid-range) and seven faculty in "other" ranks, including department chairpersons ($256,534 average, $283,568 mid-range).

In the Katz Graduate School of Business, 70 faculty members earned an average salary of $80,962, with a mid-range of $75,375.

The total included 35 full professors ($96,365 average, $89,500 mid-range), 17 associate professors ($68,342 average, $69,740 mid-range), 13 assistant professors ($66,150 average, $65,050 mid-range) and five others ($54,557 average, $60,000 mid-range).

The 42 School of Law faculty members earned an average salary of $79,689, with a mid-range of $83,750.

That included 23 full professors ($102,789 average, $104,964 mid-range), four associate professors ($77,194 average, $76,495 mid-range), six assistant professors ($55,766 average, $50,006 mid-range), four instructors ($35,359 average, $32,959 mid-range) and five others ($39,596 average, $37,645 mid-range).

The 35 faculty members in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs earned an average salary of $75,519, with $76,133 as the mid-range.

That included 19 full professors ($85,033 average, $84,464 mid-range), 12 associate professors ($70,050 average, $68,488 mid-range) and four assistant professors ($46,736 average, $48,664 mid-range).

The 96 School of Engineering faculty earned a $66,974 average salary, with $61,595 as the mid-range.

The total included 40 full professors ($84,389 average, $82,931 mid-range), 39 associate professors ($57,737 average, $57,550 mid-range) and 17 assistant professors ($47,189 average, $50,520 mid-range).

Two other units had exceptionally high mean and median salaries for faculty: the Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean's office/Mellon Professors (where 14 full professors earned $102,083 average and $95,851 mid-range salaries) and the Learning Research and Development Center (where four full professors earned $100,075 average and $98,963 mid-range salaries).

Except for two small Pittsburgh campus units that employed only instructors, the regional campuses again had the lowest average faculty salaries.

The Johnstown campus's 148 faculty members earned an average of $42,903, with $41,168 as the mid-range.

The total included 20 full professors ($58,672 average, $59,840 mid-range), 71 associate professors ($45,717 average, $46,225 mid-range), 29 assistant professors ($33,299 average, $33,008 mid-range), 16 instructors ($31,527 average, $31,659 mid-range) and 12 others ($38,356 average, $38,135 mid-range).

At Greensburg, 62 faculty members earned a $40,077 average salary, with $39,001 as the mid-range.

That included 10 full professors ($53,528 average, $54,747 mid-range), 24 associate professors ($43,587 average, $43,952 mid-range), 16 assistant professors ($34,736 average, $34,557 mid-range), eight instructors ($29,144 average, $29,802 mid-range) and four others ($28,623 average, $27,563 mid-range).

Bradford employed 70 faculty earning average and mid-range salaries of $40,021 and $38,838, respectively.

That included nine full professors ($54,871 average, $54,002 mid-range), 22 associate professors ($44,011 average, $43,860 mid-range), 28 assistant professors ($35,712 average, $34,197 mid-range), seven instructors ($29,760 average, $28,140 mid-range) and four others ($32,788 average, $32,096 mid-range).

The Titusville campus is the only Pitt academic unit that does not offer four-year degree programs. It also does not employ any full professors. Predictably, it was the campus with the lowest average and mid-range faculty salaries: $34,676 and $34,249, respectively, among 24 faculty in the survey.

The total included nine associate professors ($37,935 average, $37,615 mid-range), nine assistant professors ($31,728 average, $31,000 mid-range), three instructors, and three faculty members in the "other" category.

–Bruce Steele


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