Data collection for the 2025–26 FCS concluded in March, with nearly 780 US colleges and universities providing employment data for approximately 360,000 full-time and over 125,000 part-time faculty members as well as senior administrators at nearly 500 institutions. Participants reflected the wide range of institutional types across the United States, including approximately 285 doctoral universities, 210 regional universities, 190 liberal arts colleges, 65 community colleges, and 160 minority-serving institutions.
Complete analyses of this year’s results will be presented in the forthcoming Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession 2025–26, scheduled to be published online in June and printed in August in the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (the summer issue of Academe). Final datasets, including corrected appendixes and datasets, will be released in July.
Average salaries for full-time faculty decreased from fall 2024 to fall 2025, after adjusting for inflation, following two consecutive years of increases, according to preliminary results from the AAUP’s 2025–26 Faculty Compensation Survey (FCS). Nominal average salaries increased 2.3 percent overall from fall 2024 to fall 2025, while real wages decreased about 0.4 percent after adjusting for the 2.7 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). Average salaries for continuing full-time faculty members—those employed in fall 2024 and remaining employed at the same institution in fall 2025—increased about 3.4 percent overall in nominal terms, or about 0.7 percent after adjusting for inflation. Real average salaries still have not fully recovered from the cumulative decrease of 7.5 percent observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, from fall 2019 to fall 2022.
Expanded Data Collection on Part-Time Faculty Pay
Data collection on part-time faculty members was greatly expanded this year to collect more information on faculty members who are paid on a per-course-section basis; nearly 590 colleges and universities providing such data, an increase of over fifty percent from last year, greatly improving the validity of survey findings. Special emphasis was placed on collecting minimum (starting) pay for part-time faculty members: among about 555 institutions completing that survey item, the median starting pay was $3,121 per course section. Nearly 87 percent of institutions reported hiring at least some part-time faculty members on a per-course section basis; among those institutions, nearly 70 percent reported providing such faculty members neither retirement nor medical benefits.
Key Preliminary Findings on Faculty Compensation
- Average salaries for full-time faculty members (all ranks combined) increased 2.3 percent, following a 3.8 percent increase in each of the two prior years.
- Average salaries for full-time faculty members increased 2.4 percent among public institutions, 1.5 percent among private independent institutions, and 2.5 percent among religiously affiliated institutions.
- Real average salaries for full-time faculty members decreased 0.4 percent and still have not returned to the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Average salaries for continuing full-time faculty members (those employed in fall 2024 and remained employed in fall 2025) increased 3.4 percent in nominal terms, and increased 0.7 percent in real terms, after adjusting for inflation.
- Average rates of pay per course section for part-time faculty members varied widely between institution types in the prior academic year, 2024–25, ranging from a low of $3,200 in religiously affiliated master’s institutions to a high of $6,320 in private independent baccalaureate institutions. Among 555 institutions reporting starting (minimum) pay, the median starting pay was $3,121 per course section. Only 32.7 percent of institutions reported contributing toward retirement plans for some or all of such faculty members and only 30.6 percent of institutions reported contributing to premiums for their medical insurance plans in the prior academic year, 2024–25.
Data Components Now Available
- AAUP chapter leaders, AAUP state conference officers, and AFT local officers may order full datasets and research portal access free of charge, and institutions may purchase data products for a fee.
- Results may be explored on the AAUP’s interactive data website at https://data.aaup.org/, which includes institution-level data and tools for summarizing data by region, state, institution size, Carnegie Basic Classification, and other variables.
- Download appendixes with detailed institutional-level data. (The appendixes are designed to be viewed as two-page spreads. If your web browser doesn't offer an option to view as a spread, download the PDF and reopen it after saving.)
- Download summary tables and explanation of statistical data, including
- Average percentage change in salaries for all full-time faculty [Survey Report Table A]
- Average percentage change in salaries for continuing full-time faculty [Survey Report Table B]
- Salary differences by institutional category, control, affiliation, and region [Survey Report Tables 1, 2, 4, and 5]
- Gender differences [Survey Report Tables 3, 6, and 7]
- Retirement benefits [Survey Report Table 8]
- Medical benefits [Survey Report Table 9]
- Dependent tuition benefits [Survey Report Table 10]
- Administrator salaries [Survey Report Tables 11, 12, 13, and 14]
- Part-time faculty pay (2024–25) [Survey Report Table 15]
The AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey complements the US Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Human Resources survey component and includes five components: (1) full-time faculty salaries by rank, gender, and contract length; (2) full-time faculty benefits, including retirement, medical, and dependent tuition benefits; (3) continuing full-time faculty salaries by rank and contract length; (4) salary data for key administrative positions; and (5) salary and benefits data for part-time adjunct faculty members who were paid on a per-course-section basis in the prior academic year. Data on part-time adjunct faculty were collected for the prior academic year, 2024–25, to ensure that institutions could provide complete data for an entire academic year. The AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey is the largest source of data on part-time adjunct faculty members who are paid per course section and draws attention to the appallingly low rates of pay and benefits offered to them at many institutions.