Release date: 4/18/05
For more information, contact Robin Burns.
Washington, D.C.—The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) released its Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2004-05, titled "Inequities Persist for Women and Non-Tenure-Track Faculty." The author of the report, Dr. John Curtis, director of research at the AAUP, presented the report's findings and responding to questions at a seminar and media conference.
The data gathered in the annual faculty compensation survey revealed a substantial variation in salaries among different types of institutions and different categories of faculty. The report examines current figures and trends in these variations, and explores the contrasts among faculty of various ranks, tenured vs. nontenured faculty, and female vs. male faculty of the same rank.
The report also compares salary increases at various types of institutions, and summary tables describe faculty salaries, benefits, and tenure status by type of institution, academic rank, geographic region, and gender. The report includes institutional data for the 1416 institutions that participated in the survey.
This year's report shows, for the first time in eight years, that faculty salaries failed to keep pace with inflation. Overall salary levels for all types of faculty rose 2.8 percent for 2004-05 compared with 2003-04, which falls short of the 3.3 rate of inflation during the year.
The report also highlights three special issues:
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Compensation for contingent (part-time and other non-tenure-track) faculty
The report reviews an analysis showing that full-time non-tenure-track faculty earn 26 percent less, and part-time faculty 64 percent less than full-time faculty, even when rates of pay are adjusted to a comparable basis.
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Continuing inequities in pay between men and women faculty
Among full-time faculty at all types of institutions, women earn about 80 percent of what men earn.
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Trends in presidential and faculty salaries over the past three decades
Presidential salaries range from one-and-one-quarter times the salaries of senior professors to nearly seven times that amount.
The presentation on April 18 will include a description of a new measure of progress toward gender equity among faculty, called the "gender equity index." The index tracks four indicators of equity to enable institutions to measure their relative progress toward attaining comparable status for men and women faculty. The indicators will track relative salaries, tenure-track status, promotion to the rank of full professor, and proportion of all full-time faculty. The gender equity index study is under way now; a first set of results will be reported in the fall of 2005.
The American Association of University Professors is a nonprofit charitable and educational organization that promotes academic freedom by supporting tenure, academic due process, and standards of quality in higher education. The AAUP has about 45,000 members at colleges and universities throughout the United States.