While I applaud The Spectator for running a story about faculty salaries, reporting average salaries understates the problem. The article reported the average assistant professor at UW-Eau Claire makes $47,500. While this is technically accurate, it is not a fair measure of the overall distribution.

According to data from the UW System budget office, of the 97 full-time assistant professors at Eau Claire, only 23 made $47,500 or more. In other words, 76 percent of the assistant professors made less than the average reported by the American Association of University Professors. The ratios are similar for associate and full professors.

The problem is that averages are sensitive to outliers. If you calculate the average net worth of 100 people and one is Bill Gates, the average would be $465,000,000 even if the other 99 had no assets at all. The same problem is occurring here.

The average assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences makes about $44,600, while the average assistant professor in the College of Business makes slightly more than $63,000. Eighty-two percent of the assistant professors in A & S make less than the AAUP reported average of $47,500, while none of the assistant professors in College of Business fall under that same amount. Similar patterns exist across all ranks.

A better measure of faculty salaries is to look at medians. A median shows the middle of the distribution, so 50 percent of the salaries are above the median and 50 percent are below it.

For the record, the median assistant professor makes about $45,600, the median associate professor makes about $55,500, and the median full professor is a hair more than $66,000.

Geoff “Slightly Below the Median” Peterson
Assistant Professor of Political Science