Associate professors have a harder time gaining salary increase
This week an annual survey released by The American Association of University Professors found that the wage gap between associate professors and full professors, whose pay has increased by 12 percent, is widening, and cautions that the recession’s effect on faculty salaries isn't over yet.
The average salary for full-time faculty members rose 2.2 percent between 2013 and 2014. According to a Chronicle analysis of data provided by the American Association of University Professors, pay for associate professors has grown by 5.6 percent since 2000 and salaries for assistant professors have increased by 9 percent.
The Chronicle suggests that salaries for assistant professors might be rising at a faster rate than those of associate professors because institutions are more likely to annually put together “competitive pay packages” to lure new junior faculty members onto campus.
The average salary of an assistant professor across all types of institutions was $69,848 during 2013 and 2014, compared to $81,980 for an associate professor –– a gap of about $12,000, according to AAUP data.
According to the AAUP data, an associate professor’s “earning power” varies according to the type of institution they work for.
The spokesperson for the University, E.J. Miranda, told The Daily Targum in January that Rutgers cares deeply about its employees and is working hard toward negotiating fair and reasonable contracts with many of the unions representing Rutgers employees.
“We are being entirely respectful of the collective bargaining process and the negotiations at the bargaining table,” Miranda said. “We expect the employee unions and the administration’s negotiating team to continue to work in the best interests of the University, its students and the communities we serve.”
Rutgers AAUP-AFT’s official website states, “the mission of the Rutgers Council of AAUP-AFT Chapters is to uphold, promote and defend values essential to the protection of quality public higher education.”
The group, which is embodied by working professors of all ranks, values academic freedom, tenure, shared governance, due process, access to education, research funding and diversity.
By negotiating terms and conditions of employment of the employees the group represents, they aim to enhance the quality of work life. Sherry Wolf, lead organizer of the AAUP-AFT, said the organization aims to negotiate fair contracts between the employers and the employees that AAUP-AFT represents.
Wolf told The Daily Targum in January, “we deserve the salaries that were promised to us. All we are asking is that we should have normal contracts where we have a strict salary and raises.”
