Average full-time faculty wages fell 2.4% after inflation, AAUP finds

Dive Brief:

• Average salaries of full-time college faculty fell by 2.4% in the 2022-23 academic year after adjusting for inflation, according to preliminary data by the American Association of University Professors released Thursday.
• The faculty group found that though average full-time wages jumped by more than 4% in 2022-23 — the greatest single-year increase since 1990-91 — inflation outpaced that growth. 
• Average pay for continuing faculty members, those who were employed in 2021 and continued those jobs into last year, fell by 1.7% after accounting for inflation, according to AAUP. It said it plans to release a more comprehensive report on the economic state of the professoriate in July.

Dive Insight:

The decrease in faculty members’ real pay continues a trend seen in previous academic years. 

AAUP reported last year that faculty salaries fell by 5% in 2021-22, the largest one-year drop since the organization began tracking the data in 1972.

Its new report documents educators’ salaries from almost 900 U.S. colleges, capturing data on roughly 370,000 full-time and 90,000 part-time faculty members.

This is the third consecutive year wage growth fell below inflation, AAUP found.