Faculty salaries at U.S. colleges and universities increased for the second consecutive year but still lag significantly behind pre-pandemic levels, according to the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) annual economic report released Tuesday.
Average salaries for full-time faculty members (all ranks combined) increased 3.8 percent from fall 2023 to fall 2024, following a 3.8 percent increase the prior year. However, real average salaries remain about 6.2 percent lower than they were in fall 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The report, based on data from over 800 U.S. colleges and universities representing approximately 370,000 full-time faculty members, provides a comprehensive look at faculty compensation amid ongoing challenges facing higher education.
Growth in real average salaries for full-time faculty members exceeded inflation for the second consecutive year, with salaries increasing 0.9 percent after adjusting for 2.9 percent inflation from December 2023 to December 2024. Still, the recovery remains incomplete following three consecutive years of declining real salaries during the pandemic.
Faculty compensation varies dramatically across institution types and academic ranks. Average salaries for full-time faculty members ranged from a low of $62,023 for instructors at associate’s institutions with ranking systems to a high of $181,273 for full professors at doctoral universities.
By institutional control, nominal 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.
The report also examined salary equity by gender, finding persistent disparities. Average full-time faculty salaries for women were 83.2 percent of those for men in 2024–25, with women earning an average salary of $105,751, compared with $127,125 for men. The gender salary-equity ratio was lowest (87.2) at the full professor rank, where women earned a salary of $147,375, on average, compared with $168,927 for men.
Part-time faculty, who represent a growing share of the academic workforce, continue to face challenging economic conditions. Part-time faculty members who were paid on a per-course-section basis in the prior year (2023–24) received an average of $4,093 per three-credit course section, nearly a 5 percent increase from 2022–23.
However, despite the positive trend, part-time faculty pay remains appallingly low, and in real terms it has not returned to the levels before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. After adjusting for inflation, per-course-section pay decreased about 3.9 percent from 2019-20 to 2023-24.
The report highlighted the growing compensation gap between administrators and faculty. Growth in salaries for college and university administrators has outpaced the growth in full-time faculty salaries for years. The ratio of presidents’ to full professors’ average salaries in doctoral institutions was 1.7 in fall 1981, compared with 4.9 in fall 2024.
Median salaries for college and university presidents in 2024–25 ranged from a low of about $268,000 at public associate’s institutions without ranking systems to a high of over $900,000 at private-independent doctoral universities.
The report comes as higher education faces unprecedented political interference and funding challenges. Only months into his new term, President Donald J. Trump has cut billions of dollars of federal grants and contracts for universities; targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; and engaged in “unprecedented government overreach and political interference,” according to a statement from the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
The Trump administration decimated the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which is housed in the Department of Education, through the mass cancellation of contracts and mass layoffs of staff, making it impossible for IES to carry out the vital functions of collecting high-quality data. This action threatens the data collection that forms the foundation of the AAUP’s Faculty Compensation Survey.
The report documented continuing changes in the academic workforce composition. About 31.8 percent of faculty members in U.S. colleges and universities held full-time tenured or tenure-track appointments in fall 2023, compared with about 53.1 percent in fall 1987. Conversely, about 68.2 percent of faculty members in U.S. colleges and universities held either part-time or full-time contingent appointments in fall 2023, compared with about 46.9 percent in fall 1987.
This shift toward contingent employment has significant implications for academic freedom, faculty governance, and the stability of higher education institutions, according to AAUP researchers.
The report also underscores the complex challenges facing American higher education as institutions navigate political pressures, funding uncertainties, and workforce changes while striving to maintain educational quality and faculty economic security.
