Professor salaries increase by lowest % in 50 years

The American Association of University Professors’ 2009-2010 report on faculty salaries shows that the average salary for a full-time faculty member increased only 1.2% — the lowest increase in the 50 years of the survey.

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

According to the association, the average pay for a full-time faculty member in 2009-10 is $80,368. At research institutions, that figure is $91,060; at master’s institutions, $70,807; at baccalaureate colleges, $67,232; and at two-year colleges, $59,400.

“No one becomes a professor because they expect to get rich,” says Saranna R. Thornton, a professor of economics at Hampden-Sydney College and chair of the AAUP’s Committee on the Economic Status of the Profession. “But I don’t think professors are any different than anybody else in that they don’t want to see their purchasing power go down. There’s nothing immoral about wanting to make a little more money than you did last year.”

The sobering statistics may be even worse when you consider that unpaid furloughs are not reflected in the report.

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