2019–20 Faculty Compensation Survey Data

Data from the 2019–20 Faculty Compensation Survey, including summary tables and institutional appendices, are now available at https://www.aaup.org/ARES. Faculty salaries have remained flat for years, and data from the AAUP’s annual survey show that among the 842 institutions that partici­pated in the survey from 2009–10 to 2019–20, average salaries for full-time faculty have increased less than 2.5 percent since 2009–10 and less than 0.1 percent since 2015–16 after adjusting for inflation. On average, salaries of full-time faculty members are 2.8 percent higher in 2019–20 than they were in the preceding academic year. With con­sumer prices growing by 2.3 percent during the year, the increase in real terms was 0.5 percent.

For the 2019–20 Faculty Compensation Survey, the AAUP collected data from 928 colleges and universities across the United States, including community colleges, small liberal arts colleges, and major research universities. The survey covers almost 380,000 full-time and more than 96,000 part-time faculty members, as well as senior adminis­trators at nearly 600 institutions.

Last year, the survey began collecting data on pay rates for part-time faculty members who were paid per course section taught. Participation increased this year, with 370 institutions providing data on pay and 438 institutions providing data on benefits for part-time faculty. The AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey is the largest source of such data and draws attention to the appallingly low rates of pay and benefits offered to part-time faculty at many institutions.

Complete analyses of this year’s results will be presented in the upcoming Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession, 2019–20, to be published online in May and printed in August in the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors. The report will situate this year’s results in the broader context of economic recov­ery from the Great Recession by examining trends in state and local appropriations, enrollment, institu­tional finances, and key economic indicators from 2006 to the pres­ent. While the precise effects of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the economic status of faculty cannot be predicted, the annual report will also highlight some of the lessons learned from previous economic crises.

For information about addi­tional data products available from the AAUP, visit https://research.aaup.org/order.