- About
- Programs
- Issues
- Academic Freedom
- Political Attacks on Higher Education
- Resources on Collective Bargaining
- Shared Governance
- Campus Protests
- Faculty Compensation
- Racial Justice
- Diversity in Higher Ed
- Financial Crisis
- Privatization and OPMs
- Contingent Faculty Positions
- Tenure
- Workplace Issues
- Gender and Sexuality in Higher Ed
- Targeted Harassment
- Intellectual Property & Copyright
- Civility
- The Family and Medical Leave Act
- Pregnancy in the Academy
- Publications
- Data
- News
- Membership
- Chapters
AAUP Dues Structure
Summary: AAUP dues are adjusted automatically every January based on the average of the faculty salary increase and the Consumer Price Index under a dues formula established at the Seventy-Second Annual Meeting of the AAUP in 1986.
To set dues, the AAUP Council makes a recommendation to the AAUP Biennial Meeting, which must be then voted on by the member delegates at the meeting. Under the AAUP Constitution, the AAUP Council has the authority “to determine the annual Association dues and regulations governing their payment, subject to ratification at a meeting of the Association.” At the meeting, “a vote setting dues or establishing a dues formula shall be conducted by secret ballot.”
At the Seventy-Second Annual Meeting of the AAUP in 1986, a vote was conducted to establish a dues formula using data produced in the AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey, which is conducted under the aegis of the Committee of the Economic Status of the Profession, at that time known as Committee Z:
That the national dues index should be revised so that, instead of indexing dues directly to the percentage of change in the annual Committee Z salary report, dues will vary with one-half the sum of the percentage change in average faculty salaries as reported by Committee Z plus the percentage change in the Consumer Price Index selected by Committee Z.
Thus, AAUP national dues must be indexed annually pursuant to this formula, and any changes to dues resulting from this indexing are not subject to approval by either the Council or the Biennial Meeting. A change in the indexing, including its discontinuance, would be considered a change in the “established dues formula” and would need to follow the requirements of our AAUP Constitution and federal labor law. The AAUP can have exceptions to normal dues, such as for new members. However, there are restrictions on these, and they can normally only be temporary or for special circumstances.
Dues changes are calculated annually by AAUP’s membership committee and research department. Because annual dues changes are calculated according to a formula as a matter of longstanding AAUP policy, they are not subject to the approval of the AAUP Council or anyone else. New dues rates are effective on January 1 of each year.
