After Inflation, Faculty Salaries Declined This Fall

Average salaries for full-time faculty members fell 0.4 percent between fall 2024 and fall 2025 after adjusting for inflation—the first real-dollar decrease in three years, according to data from the American Association of University Professors’ annual faculty compensation survey. Real-dollar faculty salaries have not yet recovered from a cumulative 7.5 percent drop between fall 2019 and fall 2022 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey includes employment data for 360,000 full-time and over 125,000 part-time faculty members from more than 780 institutions.

Continuing faculty—defined as full-time faculty members who remained at the same institution between fall 2024 and fall 2025—saw an average salary increase of 0.7 percent after adjusting for inflation.

This year’s survey collected more data about part-time faculty members and found that average rates of pay per course during the 2024–25 academic year varied from a low of $3,200 at religious master’s institutions to $6,320 at private baccalaureate institutions. Median starting pay was $3,121 per course section. About a third of institutions said they contribute to retirement plans for at least some part-time faculty members, and 30.6 percent said they contributed to part-time faculty members’ medical insurance premiums during the 2024–25 academic year.