Preliminary 2024-25 Faculty Compensation Survey Results

Data collection for the 2024–25 FCS concluded in March, with over 800 US colleges and universities providing employment data for approximately 370,000 full-time and 90,000 part-time faculty members as well as senior administrators at more than 500 institutions. Participants reflected the wide range of institutional types across the United States, including approximately 225 doctoral universities, 320 regional universities, 180 liberal arts colleges, 80 community colleges, and 175 minority-serving institutions.

Complete analyses of this year’s results will be presented in the forthcoming Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession 2024–25, scheduled to be published online in June and printed in August in the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors (the summer issue of Academe). Final datasets, including corrected appendices and datasets, will be released in July.

Real average salaries for full-time faculty increased for the second consecutive year, after adjusting for inflation, according to preliminary results from the AAUP’s 2024–25 Faculty Compensation Survey (FCS). Nominal average salaries increased 3.8 percent from fall 2023 to fall 2024, while real wages increased only 0.9 percent after adjusting for the 2.9 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U). Average salaries for continuing full-time faculty—those employed in fall 2023 and remaining employed at the same institution in fall 2024—increased about 4.7 percent in nominal terms, or about 1.8 percent after adjusting for inflation. Despite the positive trend, real average salaries still have not fully recovered from the cumulative decrease of 7.5 percent observed during the COVID-19 pandemic, from fall 2019 to fall 2022.

Key Preliminary Findings on Faculty Compensation

  • Average salaries for full-time faculty members (all ranks combined) increased 3.8 percent, following a 3.8 percent increase the prior year.
  • Average salaries for full-time faculty members increased 3.9 percent among public institutions, 3.6 percent among private independent institutions, and 3.0 percent among religiously affiliated institutions.
  • Real average salaries for full-time faculty members increased 0.6 percent—the second consecutive year that wage growth has exceeded inflation—but have not returned to the levels before the COVID-19 pandemic. (The CPI-U increased 2.9 percent in 2024 and 3.4 percent in 2023.)
  • Average salaries for continuing full-time faculty members (those employed in fall 2023 and remained employed in fall 2024) increased 4.7 percent in nominal terms, and increased 1.8 percent in real terms, after adjusting for inflation.
  • Average rates of pay per course section for part-time faculty members varied widely between institution types in the prior academic year, 2023–24, ranging from a low of $3,226 in religiously affiliated master’s institutions to a high of $6,481 in private independent baccalaureate institutions.
    Only 34.4 percent of institutions contributed toward retirement plans for some or all part-time faculty members and only 31.5 percent of institutions contributed to premiums for their medical insurance plans in the prior academic year, 2023–24.

Data Components Now Available

The AAUP Research Department has released preliminary data from the 2024–25 Faculty Compensation Survey. The following components are now available:

  • AAUP chapter leaders, AAUP state conference officers, and AFT local officers may order full datasets and research portal access free of charge, and institutions may purchase data products for a fee.
  • Results may be explored on the AAUP’s interactive data website at https://data.aaup.org/, which includes institution-level data and tools for summarizing data by region, state, institution size, Carnegie Basic Classification, and other variables.
  • Download appendices with detailed institutional-level data. (The appendices are designed to be viewed as two-page spreads. If your web browser doesn't offer an option to view as a spread, download the PDF and reopen it after saving.)
  • Download summary tables and explanation of statistical data, including
    • Average percentage change in salaries for all full-time faculty [Survey Report Table A]
    • Average percentage change in salaries for continuing full-time faculty [Survey Report Table B]
    • Salary differences by institutional category, control, affiliation, and region [Survey Report Tables 1, 2, 4, and 5]
    • Gender differences [Survey Report Tables 3, 6, and 7]
    • Retirement benefits [Survey Report Table 8]
    • Medical benefits [Survey Report Table 9]
    • Dependent tuition benefits [Survey Report Table 10]
    • Administrator salaries [Survey Report Tables 11, 12, 13, and 14]
    • Part-time faculty pay (2020–21) [Survey Report Table 15]

The AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey complements the US Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Human Resources survey component and includes five components: (1) full-time faculty salaries by rank, gender, and contract length; (2) full-time faculty benefits, including retirement, medical, and dependent tuition benefits; (3) continuing full-time faculty salaries by rank and contract length; (4) salary data for key administrative positions; and (5) salary and benefits data for part-time adjunct faculty members who were paid on a per-course-section basis in the prior academic year. Data on part-time adjunct faculty were collected for the prior academic year, 2023–24, to ensure that institutions could provide complete data for an entire academic year. The AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey is the largest source of data on part-time adjunct faculty members and draws attention to the appallingly low rates of pay and benefits offered to them at many institutions.