Pay of Senior Administrators Still Beats Inflation, Even in Sluggish Economy (Chronicle of Higher Ed)
Submitted by Lori Reardon on Mon, 02/23/2009 - 1:39pm.
Higher education new article date: 02/27/2009 Description: FY09 administrator pay outpaces inflation for the 12th straight year
Pay of Senior Administrators Still Beats Inflation, Even in Sluggish Economy
By MARISA LÓPEZ-RIVERA
Despite the souring economy, increases in salaries for senior administrators have outpaced inflation in the 2008-9 fiscal year, according to a report issued this week by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.
The median base salary for senior-level administrators increased by 4 percent this year — the third consecutive year at that rate. This was the 12th straight year that salary increases have outpaced inflation, which was 3.8 percent during the survey period, according to the Consumer Price Index.
Andy Brantley, president of CUPA-HR, warned that the numbers do not reflect the hardships higher education will face during the next fiscal year, since institutions made budget decisions months before the economy unraveled. He expects to see a drop in the increases in median salaries next year.
Because of the timing of the survey, CUPA-HR included a new question on whether institutions expected to receive authorization next year to fill new or vacant positions.
Fifty percent of respondents expected to hire "somewhat fewer" or "significantly fewer" staff members than last year. Institutions said, however, that they hoped to hire as many faculty members as the year before.
The hiring data match results from a Chronicle-Moody's survey this year, which found that 58 percent of surveyed institutions had partial hiring freezes in place for staff positions and 7 percent had total freezes (The Chronicle, January 9).
Mr. Brantley hopes that institutions will still maintain salary and benefit levels for staff members who will have to take on added responsibilities because of the possible hiring freezes.
Private Colleges Paid More
The data, which came from 1,329 institutions, showed median salaries for nearly 78,000 incumbents in 274 administrative positions. They were collected from September 2008 through January 2009.
Private and public institutions responded in nearly equal numbers, with private colleges seeing slightly higher salary increases.
The most pronounced difference in raises between public and private colleges was for associate deans. Those at private institutions earned a median increase of 4.2 percent, while those at public colleges received a 3.5-percent increase.
The median salary for presidents of doctoral institutions was $380,293. Chief executives of master's and bachelor's degree institutions earned a median salary of $242,050 and $225,000, respectively. Leaders of two-year institutions earned a median salary of $164,947.
The survey can be ordered online at http://www.cupahr.org.
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