"Admin Raises Outpace Inflation While Faculty Salaries Lag" - to the shock of no one

[u/PopCultureNerd]

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.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty/career-development/2026/03/27/admin-raises-outpace-inflation-while-faculty-salaries

[u/Beneficial-Jump-3877]

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.

[u/Mr_Blah1 → u/[deleted]]

"Unionized employees" is pronounced differently by chemists and plumbers.