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Salaries
in Academia
By: James Lange, JD, CPA
The article,
What Professors Earn, published in the April 23, 1999 edition of
The Chronicle of Higher Education, presents a comprehensive comparison
of salary averages across 1,800 academic institutions. While the
average salary increase for 1998-99 was 3.6 percent, double the
current inflation rate of 1.6 percent, academic salaries lag far
behind the salaries of professionals outside academe. On average,
faculty members earn 30 percent less than educated professionals
in law or engineering. The article also reports on the salary disparities
between public and private doctoral universities, and between doctoral
and two-year institutions. Unfortunately, there was no analysis
of benefits. Copies of Academe with the survey report may be purchased
for $69.50, from the American Association of University Professors,
1012 14th Street, N.W., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20005; (202)737-5900.
Salary
Negotiation Strategies
Most of my clients
have been in academia their entire career, and their career choice
was not motivated by money. Many of my clients, admittedly naive
about money, are not skilled negotiators. Worse yet, they do not
have the desire or the inclination to dispute their salaries. Some
of my clients seem to think they have no control over their salaries.
While it may seem distasteful, getting over the disinclination to
negotiate your salary can have very positive results.
It is my informal
observation that professors who actively engage in salary negotiations
make significantly more money and/or other benefits than those who
passively accept whatever is offered. The Internet is a good source
for salary information and comparison-
shopping. The most significant raises tend to result from either
changing universities or using the leverage of a competing offer
to negotiate a better salary at your current institution. Keep in
mind that your salary is not the only item that can benefit from
negotiation. For example, wouldn't it be nice to have more secretarial
support?
For older professors
interested in good terms for an early retirement package, please
consider the threat of not retiring. I advise clients to keep their
desires for an early retirement to themselves. On the other hand,
it is almost always a financial mistake to take an early retirement
if the primary motivation for taking the early retirement is money.
Even an offer of 1 or 2 years salary as an early retirement package
is a lot less money than you would earn if you kept working for
another 3 years or more. While I prefer to stick to financial rather
than personal advice, for many wealthy clients considering early
retirement, I offer this observation: Do whatever you want to do
without considering finances. My instinct is that given a certain
asset level, perhaps $1.5 million or more, finances should not be
the most important factor in determining how you are going to spend
your time. If you want to keep working, keep working. If you want
to retire, retire. If you want to maintain certain
teaching and/or research activities, then work out a deal to do
what you want.
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