The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources released its annual salary report. It's been noted that salaries vary widely across different fields of study.
The study reveals that law professors earn the most ($145,732), followed by business professors ($129,904) and engineering professors ($129,012). Meanwhile, English and history professors earn just around half of those. In fact, even assistant business professors earn six-figures while assistant professors in the humanities department earn only half.
Harmony has increased the teacher salary to 50K minimum. #Harmonyjobfair pic.twitter.com/xO62ADtBPy
— Darren Polat (@PolatDarren) April 2, 2016
Why does this happen? According to American Enterprise Institute, it's all about supply and demand. A university would naturally pay more for teachers that are harder to hire. Since law and business have other lucrative career avenues apart from teaching, it's going to cost more to get them to stay in school.
In addition to being paid less, English and history professors take longer to find jobs and are also more likely to be in debt, according to Inside Higher Ed. Ph.D.'s for these subjects generally take much longer to finish than those in the higher-paying fields.
Salaries in higher ed growing slow, pay gap remains between men and women https://t.co/qjvWl8AZpU pic.twitter.com/WCH4XJBzRu — Higher Ed Hero (@HigherEdHero) March 16, 2016
The CUPA-HR study also revealed that non-tenure-track teachers also get paid less than those with tenure. Elisabeth Fairfield Stokes, a teacher in a small liberal arts college, writes in Salon that her non-tenure position puts her on her toes all the time, for fear of not having a job next school year. While she enjoys the fact that her being adjunct inspires her to be a better teacher to her students, she longs for a system that holds both adjunct and tenure-track teachers to a higher standard.
