The Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2018-19

Published May 2019.

This year’s annual report provides an overview of the results of the 2018–19 AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey, which compiled data on more than 380,000 full-time faculty members at 952 colleges and universities, as well as improved data on pay and benefits for more than 64,000 part-time faculty members at more than 360 institutions. In addition, this year’s report examines the changes in full-time faculty salaries and appointment types, with a particular focus on progress toward gender equity, in the ten years since the Great Recession. Finally, the report explores some of the improved data on part-time faculty pay.

Findings from This Year’s Survey

On average, salaries for full-time faculty members were 2 percent higher in 2018–19 than in the preceding academic year. But with prices in the economy as a whole growing by 1.9 percent during this period, faculty salaries barely budged when adjusted for inflation. For full-time faculty members who remained employed at the same college or university between 2017–18 and 2018–19, the situation was somewhat more promising. These continuing faculty members earned average salary increases of 3.1 percent, with higher rates of increase for those who were assistant professors or instructors last year. Since the increases for continuing faculty include any salary raises those who were promoted may have received, the higher rates of increase among continuing faculty members are to be expected. But even among these full-time faculty members in relatively stable positions, the rates of salary increase are lower than last year.

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Download the appendices.

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