How Much Do Philosophers Earn?


The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources has released the results of its annual survey of faculty salaries. The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that

For the second consecutive year, salary increases for professors at public colleges outpaced those of their peers at private institutions: Their salaries rose by 2.1 percent and 2 percent, respectively. Over all, the median increase in base pay for professors was 2 percent.

The survey lumps philosophy and religious studies together. Here are the median salaries for that grouping at various ranks, along with the same for all disciplines combined:

philosophy salaries 2015

The rest of the data is at The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed.

 

 

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Alo
Alo
9 years ago

perhaps it will be more useful to state the average for private, public unis and community colleges. this figure is misleading in some way because 50% earn more than what is stated and 50% less. furthermore, it does not state where the jobs are, since CCs are less well paid than those in private, and in public unis there is such a wide range. It feels good and looks high but could be a lot more nuanced than that.

AnonGrad
AnonGrad
9 years ago

Also, we might want to consider how long public university professors went without a raise before the last two years of economic recovery.

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward
9 years ago

What a misleading title! This is about what tenure-track or tenured philosophy professors make.

Jamie Dreier
Jamie Dreier
9 years ago

Anonymous Coward,
The data in the table are about tenure track salaries, but the article covers non-tenure track salaries too.

David Wallace
David Wallace
9 years ago

@Alo: how is that misleading? It’s what “median” means. It’s less informative than giving various ranges, but if you have to give a one-figure summary of a range of data, I don’t know a better way than the median.

Gradjunct
Gradjunct
9 years ago

@Alo… what you say about the differences in pay between 2 year and 4 year institutions is false. I am a full time, non-TT, VAP at a R1 institution. I make less than a friend who is a full-time TT professor at a small 2 year CC. I have friends who are full -time TT professors at SLACs who make less than my friend at CC. Pay at 2 year institutions is very competitive. This is part of the reason why it is increasingly the case that students from top-ranked programs are applying for positions at CCs that their counterparts would never have dreamed of applying to 10 years ago.

ejrd
ejrd
9 years ago

One factor currently being overlooked, or at least under-discussed, is cost-of-living. While it’s true that an assistant professor will make more in NYC or SF than they would in Minneapolis (to just use some random ‘gut-feeling’ locations), $65,000 doesn’t go very far when very-ordinary 1 bedroom apartment will cost you $2,400.

The discussion could be usefully improved by looking at something like the cost-of-living index. What that might show us, for example, is that philosophers at high-cost-of-living-institutions (HCLIs) may be being paid comparatively less than those in low-cost-of-living-institutions (LCLIs) even if HCLI faculty are being paid more as an absolute sum than their LCLI counterparts. For example, can you afford a home on your salary, that is within a reasonable (20-30) commute from your place of work? If so, I’m willing to bet that you teach at a LCLI.