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February 16, 1995

Institutional Research's faculty salary report shows highs, lows

Among Pitt continuing full-time faculty, those in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS) received the highest average salary raises during the current fiscal year, based on total dollars (5.42 percent) and individual percent increases (5.46 percent), according to a report by Pitt's Office of Institutional Research.

The report, which Pitt's administration prepares annually for the University Senate's budget policies committee, found that the lowest average raises went to faculty in the Katz Graduate School of Business — 3.36 percent in total dollars and 3.28 percent based on individual raises.

"Total dollar" figures are calculated from the total salary money paid to faculty who were included in the report. "Individual increase" figures are based on percentage raises regardless of salary level. For example, if an assistant professor got a 10 percent raise and a higher-paid full professor in the same school got 5 percent, the average "individual increase" figure for the two would be 7.5 percent, although the "total dollars" increase in this case would be less than 7.5 percent.

SHRS Dean Clifford Brubaker attributed his school's comparatively high salary raise percentages to the fact that SHRS "cannibalized" a vacant faculty position this year, eliminating it and distributing the money among two professors who had taken on additional clinical duties and one professor who became an acting department chairperson.

The acting chairperson got a 15 percent raise, while the other two professors received over 8 percent. Only 31 SHRS faculty were eligible for the survey, so the three high raises skewed the school's overall percentages, Brubaker said.

Katz business school Dean H.J. Zoffer called the report "highly erroneous" and said he is circulating a letter among his fellow deans protesting the report. He said he plans to send the letter to Provost James Maher.

"Every school received approximately the same 3.7 percent increase in its salary budget this year," Zoffer said. "The implication of this report is that the business school, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and the other schools ranked at the bottom (of the report) passed out less salary money than they got from the central administration. And that's absolutely not true." The pool of salary money for all University employees increased by 4 percent for the current fiscal year, which began July 1; 2.7 percent was for salary maintenance, 1 percent was for merit raises, and the remaining 0.3 percent was for equity adjustments. Each school received at least a 3.7 percent increase in its salary budget but some schools got more or less than 0.3 percent for equity, said James L. Ritchie of the Institutional Research office.

Zoffer noted that in previous years, the salary report ranked the business school near the top in percentage raises — "and the report was no more or less accurate then than it is this year," he said. "I think it's an unhelpful comparison, and I think it (the report) should be discontinued." This year's report covers Oct. 31, 1993-Oct. 31, 1994. It excludes medical school faculty and full-time non-medical faculty who were hired or who left the University during that time. Also excluded were faculty whose ranks or contracts changed (from 12 months to eight months, for example), faculty on unpaid leaves, faculty who went from full-time to part-time or vice versa, and academic administrators at the level of dean or above.

That left 1,590 full-time continuing faculty to be included in the survey, or 87.5 percent of Pitt full-time faculty outside the medical school.

Pitt's 1,317 full-time medical faculty were excluded partly because of the school's salary policy, which differs from those of most other schools here. Many medical professors are paid from clinical revenues, and unusually low and high raises are common — 293 medical faculty got no raises at all this year.

Also, the school's relatively high salaries would have thrown off University-wide statistics. The mean salary of a medical school faculty member is $93,757; the median is $83,192, and 39 medical faculty receive annual University salaries of $255,000 or more.

By comparison, the mean salary of a humanities faculty member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is $47,590; the median is $43,035. Only 16 of the 548 FAS faculty earn $100,000 or more.

University-wide, the average faculty raise for this fiscal year was 3.91 percent in total dollars and 4 percent in individual raises. Health Sciences faculty (excluding medical school faculty) got slightly higher average raises (4.34 percent in total dollars, 4.62 percent in individual increases) than Provost area faculty (3.79 percent and 3.85 percent).

— Bruce Steele


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