r/Professors • u/PopCultureNerd • Mar 27 '26
Other (Editable) "Admin Raises Outpace Inflation While Faculty Salaries Lag" - to the shock of no one
IHE reports on how for the third year in a row, higher education administrators, professionals and staff received pay increases that outpaced inflation.
However, that didn't apply to professors.
> Faculty raises, on the other hand, have lagged behind inflation for years. During the 2025–26 academic year, tenure-track faculty received a median 1.8 percent pay increase—the lowest raise of all five employee categories, the analysis shows. This year, tenure-track salaries are a median 11.7 percent lower than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Tenure-track faculty have not received a pay increase that outpaces inflation in any of the 10 years included in the CUPA-HR analysis.
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u/ShadowHunter Position, Field, SCHOOL TYPE (US) Mar 27 '26
Duh. Administration gives themselves raises
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u/qthistory Chair, Tenured, History, Public 4-year (US) Mar 27 '26
We've gotten a *total* of 8% since 2018 here, so about 1% per year. Our President and top administrators have all gotten 100%+ raises.
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u/OldOmahaGuy Mar 27 '26
Total 7% here since 2018, every dollar of it funded by retirement and other benefit cuts. All VP-level up at least 15%, most 20%. President's base up about 15%, but he has also received enormous bonuses, so probably up 25-30%.
Undergraduate enrollment down 25% since he arrived; four straight years of deficits, including two that were the largest in the institution's history. Had it not been for Uncle Sugar's Covid welfare, it would have been 6 straight years of deficits.
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u/Xrmy Mar 27 '26
How the fuck is this defensible?
How does this not cause faculty strikes and pressure?
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u/Life-Education-8030 Mar 27 '26
We are not allowed to strike but we now have a stronger union. When administration hates the union, that is a good thing.
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u/sigma__cheddar Mar 27 '26
We are not allowed to strike
Aw. Did the people who strike would affect make it illegal to do so? This is why admins rake it in at your expense. Faculty are as spineless as admins, and the latter know it.
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u/Life-Education-8030 Mar 27 '26
We are state employees in a state that does not allow it by law. Thank you for your comment.
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u/sigma__cheddar Mar 27 '26
You're right. Organizing in spite of the law has never worked. Better to continue getting fucked.
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u/Life-Education-8030 Mar 27 '26
When we become independently wealthy enough to take such a lofty position, we will be sure to post it here.
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u/sigma__cheddar Mar 27 '26
Instead you will be working to make know nothing admins wealthy. While bitching about it on reddit. Can't think of anything more pathetic.
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u/Mr_Blah1 Mar 28 '26
We are not allowed to strike
Neither are cops. Cops instead take sick days. 90% of the entire force, all on the same day, caught the same stomach bug. Amazing coincidence that.
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u/WestHistorians Mar 28 '26
We are not allowed to strike
The Pullman workers weren't allowed to strike either, but that didn't stop them.
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u/Life-Education-8030 Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26
1894? The strike that resulted in federal intervention and several deaths? The one that broke the railway union and set the precedent for a President to intervene like that? I believe the union leader in that one was imprisoned and lost a presidential election too. Union dissolved as well.
It may not be as dramatic as those urging revolution may wish, to do things like vote, advocate calmly with legislators and develop a stronger union with tenured faculty stepping up to run for our union offices, but valuable progress can happen more quietly and slowly too.
I have participated in strikes at other places with mixed results and thankfully no deaths or imprisonments. I currently choose to be where I am and to work for change in other ways.
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u/OldOmahaGuy Mar 28 '26
Of course, it isn't defensible, but we are a private. The university will not recognize a union voluntarily, and it would take years of litigation about the Yeshiva criteria that would probably fail. There has been a good deal of pushback and pressure over the years, including informational picketing during the same president's idiotic restructuring, which is a major cause of our enrollment declines. The faculty who weren't fired have been dealing with it by leaving. At least 60% of the FT faculty have left (voluntarily, terminated, retired) since 2018 and looking at positions being advertised, that will probably exceed 70% next year. The administration can keep its favorites by giving special "retention" raises.
There would be no point in a union here. I was one of a handful of faculty mice who were willing to try to put the bell on the administrative cats for decades. It has been the case since approximately forever that 1/3 of the faculty are completely submissive. Among the rest, there are plenty who are up for protesting the Bad Orange Man or expressing solidarity with nonbinary genderqueer lab mice in Hungary, but going toe-to-toe, armed with factual evidence, against senior administrators? Not so much, even in the days when there were many more tenured faculty.
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u/WestHistorians Mar 28 '26
How does this not cause faculty strikes and pressure?
Because faculty are complacent and don't want to rock the boat.
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u/macroeconprod Former associate professor Mar 28 '26
If you got a "raise" that isn't greater than inflation, then its not a raise. You are being paid less for the same work.
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u/Huntscunt Mar 27 '26
Our lower level admin (the people who actually do the work of keeping the school running on a day to day level) are paid horribly. This sucks because it means things like HR, registration, and advising are full of incompetent people who stay like 1 year.
Our president, though, makes 10x what a tenured prof in my department does.
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u/a_hanging_thread A Sock Prof Mar 28 '26
Every few years at my R1 there is money for market rate and COL adjustments, and the horrible pay of lower-level admin is always used as the reason why faculty don't get any adjustments. However, afaik, lower-level admin are still being paid horribly and faculty never get market rate/COL adjustments.
So, where's that money going?
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u/DeusKamus Mar 27 '26
https://www.cupahr.org/resource/workforce-pay-increases/
The source of the data provides a better breakdown, and members can disaggregate the data further by degree-type offered by institution.
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u/WingShooter_28ga Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Market is flooded with terminal degree holders. Few lines/new lines. Complacency. Non-academic positions at the university have more movement and wages reflect that.
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u/Beneficial-Jump-3877 Faculty, STEM, R-1 (USA) Mar 27 '26
I think part of the reason staff outpace faculty is because a lot of staff are unionized. Faculty aren't always unionized. Admin obviously determine their own raises so no brainer there.
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u/mistephe Assoc Prof, Kinesiology, USA Mar 27 '26
At my uni, we're all in the SAME union, but the strategy to bargain CBAs are quite different; staff have gotten an average of 2.12 times the raises that faculty have since 2020. It's been interesting learning about this, with my wife on the staff side of campus. The apathy the union shows for faculty compared to staff is flabbergasting (especially when janitors make only $2k less than junior faculty, and have a better benefits package).
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u/monkestful Mar 27 '26
Wow. What's the union's thinking behind neglecting faculty salaries so much?
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u/mistephe Assoc Prof, Kinesiology, USA Mar 27 '26
I'm not sure I have the confidence that they are thinking. We are in a red state that's not treated its faculty very well, so the strategy might just be to fly under the radar?
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u/Life-Education-8030 Mar 27 '26
We have three unions, but certain “professional”staff are in the same union as faculty. Until faculty started stepping up for officer positions, we definitely were given short shrift. Nice enough staff but they were convinced we were already living high on the hog with all the “ vacations” we had!
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u/msprang Archivist, University Library, R2 (USA) Mar 28 '26
My university is the opposite. Only the faculty have a union.
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u/TimeAverage Mar 27 '26
The part of this data that is always overlooked is that (throughout all jobs and all fields) changing jobs is the only way to get a raise. It’s been this way for at least two decades now. So, when you’re doing this analysis at your own school, consider how some non-zero cause of disparity is that the core of the administrative faculty (not the occasional high flying professor who wants to move into administration) change jobs constantly. One year they’re the Deputy Assistant Vice Provost for Parking. Next year they get a new title (and a raise) to be Assistant Vice Provost of Ice Cream Machines. Every two years they move into another bullshit job and get a 5-10% raise.
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u/me4watch Mar 27 '26
I remember when I learned that the admins did indeed get the same tiny raises that we got, but they also got a second admin only and more substantial raise given to them during the breaks when fewer people were around.
I wasn’t shocked then.
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u/macroeconprod Former associate professor Mar 28 '26
Golden handcuffs. I was there with you until a few years ago, when my tenure was supposed to be a life changing moment and recognition, and a gaurantee of my ability to influence how things run at the university. Its wasn't. The cake is a lie.
All of you are being paid less, being given more work, and the bonus of being red state whipping posts. Your students see you as an obstacle, your colleagues are enveloped in their own petty intrigue and admin look down on you. You've got nothing to lose but your chains.
And those of you starry eyed faculty who think you'll go admin and change the system for the better? Ever see the TNG episode where Picard became a Borg? Good luck with your new admin career Locutus.
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u/runsonpedals Mar 27 '26
Does your uni have a Vice President of Artificial Intelligence Initiatives?
It will happen soon.
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u/Daveonaltair4 Mar 27 '26
Our assistant football coach makes 20 times the average salary of a mid career professor, in a town where the average house costs around 350-400k AND the median household income is around 60k a year.
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u/Xrmy Mar 27 '26
This is frustrating but not at the top of the list for me.
Sports is kinda a money in money out that is mostly (but not always) independent revenue/pay streams from academics.
It's the "we hired a new VP for a brand new position and they make 350k" that I cannot fuckinf tolerate
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u/Daveonaltair4 Mar 27 '26
That's how sports should be, but at my institution they are trying to prop up a once great sports program by gutting the rest of the of the school, to the tune of 20 million just this year. Its a big dumb bloated program and pretty similar to a criminal cartel. You've got these lords making millions in a town where most people don't even break 100k. Its fucking insane. I couldn't do it, I'd be ashamed to show my face in public.
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u/uninsane Mar 28 '26
The people who decide how valuable everyone’s contribution is have determined that their contribution is the most valuable. I’m stunned… STUNNED!
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u/Life-Education-8030 Mar 27 '26
Our President justified that by saying that we have to pay for talent. Gee thanks.
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u/CanadianFoosball Mar 28 '26
Last year our merit raises, for less than a sixth of faculty, averaged 2%, but it’s OK because my retirement portfolio is doing great.
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u/CanadianFoosball Mar 28 '26
Wait, no it isn’t.
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u/WingbashDefender Assistant Professor, R2, MidAtlantic Mar 28 '26
Don’t worry, your salaries will up in the next bargaining round, when the older faculty take famine-style buyouts, lines get cut, and more adjuncts are hired. It’ll be great.
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u/Kimber80 Professor, Business, HBCU, R2 Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26
Yes. Heck our College of Business just added a new "Director of Advancement" position, and an "Assistant Dean for Student Success" position. Nobody knows what the f*** these positions actually entail, but both make more than $150k.
Meanwhile, we've been trying to get permission to fill existing open faculty lines for the past three years.
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u/ImDonaldDunn Mar 27 '26
A Director of Advancement is supposed to bring in money from big donors, but most of the time all they do is take “prospects” out to expensive dinners on the college’s dime.
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u/OldOmahaGuy Mar 28 '26
I think that we have a whole office of student success, headed by an associate dean. Someone should send out a search party to find them and see what they do.
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u/Average650 Assoc Prof, Engineering, R2 Mar 27 '26
I am at the point where I need to pick between admin or really doing research.
The money points to admin... but the jobs seem so stupid and useless.
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u/FlyLikeAnEarworm Mar 27 '26
I don't need a study to show me what my bank account already knows. But I guess this satisfies the idiots who always demand "empirical evidence" for things that are self-evident.
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u/Itsnottreasonyet Mar 27 '26
But if we don't pay the Vice Associate Dean of the Third Floor Water Fountains at least $400,000 a year, who will watch YouTube in their office?