E.D. TAB:

Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Faculty on 9- and 10-month and 11- and 12-month contracts 1995-96

April 1997

Highlights

The U.S. Department of Education has collected data on full-time instructional faculty since 1968. From 1968 to 1985 these data were collected as part of the Higher Education General Information Surveys (HEGIS); from 1986 to the present they have been collected through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Although, IPEDS encompasses the entire spectrum of postsecondary education institutions, data on the number, salaries, tenure, and fringe benefits of full-time instructional faculty are collected only from those institutions that are accredited at the college level by an agency recognized by the Secretary of Education, that is, those institutions that originally comprised the HEGIS universe. This report presents results of analyses of data on salaries of full-time instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month and 11- and 12-month contracts.

In the fall of 1995, full-time instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month contracts earned an average salary of $49,309 (table 3). Average salaries ranged from the $64,540 average salary of full professors to about $30,344 for instructors (table 4).

Between 1994 and 1995, the average salary of full-time instructional faculty on 9 and 10 month contracts increased by 3.13 percent. Those with no academic rank received the largest percentage increase (4.3 percent) to reach an average salary of $42,996. Instructors had the smallest percentage increase (2.3 percent). The percentage increase of faculty in all other ranks was below 3 percent. For most faculty average salaries in constant dollars kept pace with inflation, although assistant professors and instructors lost ground to inflation in 1995 (table 1). The 15 percent of full-time instructional faculty who were on 11- and 12-month contracts earned an average of $57,082 in 1995 (table 12) or 15.8 percent more than instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month contracts due to their longer contract length. However, full-time instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month contracts were more likely to hold professorial rank than those on an 11- and 12-month contracts (78.8 percent compared to 68.5 percent).

The average salary of full-time instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month contracts varied by the type of institution in which they were employed. Overall, those employed in private institutions earned slightly more than those in public institutions. By rank however, this difference was true only for full professors who earned about $4,000 more on average in private than in public institutions and lecturers who earned approximately $2,000 more in private institutions (tables 5 and 6).

Full-time instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month contracts in 4-year institutions made about $8,000 more per year on average than those in 2-year institutions ($51,044 vs $43,009). However, lecturers, instructors and those with no academic rank had higher average salaries in 2-year than in 4-year institutions (tables 7 and 8).

The average salaries of male full-time instructional faculty continued to be approximately $10,000 higher than those of their female counterparts for all ranks combined although the relative difference in male and female average salaries varied among academic ranks. The largest differential was among full professors with male full professors earning about $7,600 more than female full professors. The smallest differential was among instructors with male instructors making about $1,000 more than female instructors (table 3).

Statewide average salaries for full-time instructional faculty on 9- and 10-month contracts in public institutions varied considerably, ranging from a high in New Jersey of $60,408 to a low of $35,303 in North Dakota for all ranks combined (table 4).

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For more information about the content of this report, contact Patricia Brown at Patricia.Brown@ed.gov.