GW averages about $5,000 more than the national mean in faculty salaries, according to a recent report based on a survey of 5,786 colleges and universities nationwide.
The average full professor’s salary at a private institution is $93,244, according to the American Association of University Professors, which compiled the report. GW pays an average of $98,315 to its full professors, according to GW’s Faculty Senate.
But not all professors’ salaries are equal, said Professor William Griffith, chairman of the Faculty Senate’s fiscal planning and budget committee.
Although several schools at GW pay their professors well above the national average, other schools pay salaries far below the average. Some professors think this is intentionally done to balance the averages, he said.
Griffith said the Senate asked GW to keep the average professor salary at more than the 80th percentile nationwide. Griffith said the University has complied by paying much more to professors in schools such as the Law School and School of Business and Public Management, while leaving out other professors.
“The Faculty Senate asked GW to meet two goals,” Griffith said. “They have attained the first and are still working on the second.”
A full law professor earns $152,414, while a full professor in the Columbian School of Arts and Sciences receives $84,801 – more than $8,000 less than the national average. Professors from the Graduate School of Education and Human Development’s average salaries are $11,520 less than the national average, according to Griffith.
The salary discrepancies make the University less appealing when it seeks to hire professors, Griffith said.
“Many factors are taken into account when attracting new professors,” Griffith said. “One factor is the cost of living. For example, someone who teaches at a school out away from a city will have more buying power with what they earn.”
Griffith said the University should pay higher salaries because the cost of living in D.C. is higher than in other areas.
“We are generally adequate in attracting our first-choice candidates,” Griffith said.
According to the AAUP report, there is a growing divide between public and private university salaries nationwide.
The report states, “the gap is continuing to grow between salaries at private-independent, non-church-related colleges, at which faculty are more highly compensated, and public institutions, where two-thirds of faculty are employed.”
The average salary at a public university is $17,094 less than a similar position at a private school, according to the report. These numbers are cause for concern, according to Harvard University professor Linda Bell, who wrote the report.
“The recent tightening of state budgets threatens the real salaries of faculty at public universities, where more than two-thirds of full-time faculty are employed,” Bell wrote.
Adjusting the numbers for inflation, professor salaries increased only 0.1 percent nationally from last year. This makes a job in higher education less lucrative than other positions.
“The average faculty member earns roughly 26 percent ($15,299) less than the average highly educated professional,” the report concludes.
