Tenured full professors draw average salary of $151,000.
By: David Campbell
Tenured full professors at Princeton University on average draw an annual salary of $151,100, making them the third-highest paid professors in the nation, according to a report issued last week by the American Association of University Professors.
The AAUP’s annual report on faculty compensation, which drew from data for the 2004-2005 academic year provided by 1,416 educational institutions that participated in the association’s survey, highlighted apparent ongoing inequities for women and non-tenure-track faculty.
According to the report, among full-time faculty at all types of institutions, women earn about 80 percent of what men earn. The annual study also found that full-time non-tenure-track faculty earn 26 percent less than tenured and tenure-track faculty, and part-time faculty earn 64 percent less than full-time faculty, even when pay rates are adjusted to a comparable basis, the AAUP said.
And for the first time in eight years, faculty salaries failed to keep pace with inflation, the report showed. Overall salary levels for all types of faculty rose 2.8 percent in 2004-2005, which fell short of the 3.3 rate of inflation during the year.
The study also showed that presidential salaries range from 1.25 to almost seven times the salaries of senior professors, according to the AAUP.
Dr. John Curtis, director of research at the AAUP and author of the report, stressed Thursday that the association does not rank colleges and universities according to salary in its annual survey. But he confirmed findings in the study showing the average annual salary of $151,100 for tenured full professors at Princeton was the third-highest in the nation.
Rockefeller University, a medical science graduate school in New York City, ranked first with an average salary of $169,173, while Harvard University ranked second with an average annual full professor’s salary of $163,162, Dr. Curtis confirmed.
On average, associate professors at Princeton earn about $95,500. Salaries for assistant professors average about $73,400, while non-tenure-track professors earn about $58,400, the report showed.
The AAUP found that full professors at Princeton who are male earn average salaries of $152,400, while their female colleagues earn about $144,400.
Princeton psychology Professor Joan Girgus, who is special assistant to the dean of the faculty for gender issues at Princeton, was unavailable Thursday to comment on the AAUP’s findings.

