Faculty Compensation 2011-2012

In Academe, a weighted average salary has been calculated, combining all faculty ranks. This methodology creates two issues. First, the weighted average salary includes the rank of “Instructor”. This rank is not as well defined as the traditional ranks of Full Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor, and, as a result, salaries for this rank can vary widely. In fact, many institutions do not report a salary average for this rank for that reason. In this study the weighted averages have been calculated without the rank of Instructor

Second, the Academe methodology, while reasonable for comparisons of very large numbers of institutions, contains an implied and unrecognized assumption that the peer institutions had a similar number of faculty in each of the three ranks. Where this assumption is not true, the magnitude of the difference between the salaries at the University of Idaho and its peers would be incorrectly represented. For example, if 50% of the faculty at the University of Idaho were at the rank of full professor (and therefore at salaries higher than the salaries for associate or assistant professors) and the peers, as a group, had only 25% of their faculty at the rank of full professor, then a simple weighted average salary combining all ranks would inflate the University of Idaho salaries relative to the salaries of its peers.

In this study, a weighted average salary is calculated for the peer institutions that is designed to eliminate any bias which may have resulted from a difference between the University of Idaho and its peers in the distribution of faculty across the three ranks.

The process used here is one of constructing a weighted average salary that looks like the University of Idaho in the distribution of its faculty across the three ranks, but uses the peer’s average salary for each rank. The result is that the weighted average salary can now be compared to the (all ranks combined) average salary for the University of Idaho without a bias based on the distribution of faculty in each rank. In some literature this is referred to as a “constructed counterpart”.

This same methodology is used in calculating a weighted peer average compensation value and in calculating a peer average benefit rate.

Peer Group

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Our peer group was selected based on recommendations from NCHEMS and is the result of careful comparison of a large number of institutions across a fairly large number of institutional variables. This peer group consists of institutions that look like us in terms of role and mission, range of academic and non-academic programs, and, in many cases, are direct competitors of ours for faculty hires within the region and within disciplines.

AAUP Faculty Salary Comparison – 2011-12

State Board of Education Peer Group
 

School	Full Professors	Associate Professors	Assistant Professors
Clemson University	$108,000	$79,000	$70,300
Colorado State University	$108,900	$79,800	$71,300
Kansas State University	$103,400	$73,300	$63,500
Montana State University	$84,900	$64,900	$59,500
New Mexico State University	$81,500	$67,400	$56,300
North Dakota State University	$100,100	$75,600	$68,000
University of Arkansas	$107,800	$75,700	$75,000
University of Nebraska	$114,800	$77,600	$71,600
University of Wyoming	$105,600	$75,700	$66,700
Utah State University	$93,500	$71,300	$62,500
Washington State University	$102,300	$74,100	$68,700
Peer Weighted Average	$103,580	$74,580	$67,000
University of Idaho	$90,300	$68,900	$60,100
Weighted Average Salary Comparison
University of Idaho	$74,750
State Board of Education Peers	$83,850
University of Idaho Average Salary as a percentage of SBOE Peer Weighted Average Salary	89.1 percent
Washington State University Average	$84,240
University of Idaho Average as a Percentage of Washington State University Average	88.7 percent

AAUP Faculty Compensation Comparison – 2011-12

State Board of Education Peer Group

School	Full Professors	Associate Professors	Assistant Professors
Clemson University	$137,700	$102,900	$92,100
Colorado State University	$137,500	$100,800	$90,200
Kansas State University	$128,900	$91,700	$76,700
Montana State University	$105,800	$83,000	$76,900
New Mexico State University	$103,800	$84,500	$70,600
North Dakota State University	$127,600	$98,800	$87,400
University of Arkansas	$132,800	$95,600	$92,100
University of Nebraska	$144,900	$102,000	$94,600
University of Wyoming	$138,800	$102,700	$89,000
Utah State University	$126,000	$99,100	$88,100
Washington State University	$130,000	$96,800	$89,400
Peer Weighted Average	$131,470	$96,830	$86,450
University of Idaho	$117,800	$92,600	$82,300
Weighted Average Salary Comparison
University of Idaho	$99,500
State Board of Education Peers	$107,500
University of Idaho Average Salary as a percentage of SBOE Peer Weighted Average Salary	92.6 percent
Washington State University Average	$99,500
University of Idaho Average as a Percentage of Washington State University Average	91.7 percent

AAUP Faculty Salary Comparison – 2011-12

State Board of Education Peer Group

School	Benefits as a Percentage of Faculty Salaries
Clemson University	29.8 percent
Colorado State University	26.4 percent
Kansas State University	24.0 percent
Montana State University	27.3 percent
New Mexico State University	26.2 percent
North Dakota State University	29.6 percent
University of Arkansas	24.1 percent
University of Nebraska	29.0 percent
University of Wyoming	33.6 percent
Utah State University	38.6 percent
Washington State University	29.8 percent
Peer Weighted Average	28.2 percent
University of Idaho	33.1 percent
Washington State University Benefit Rate Comparison
Washington State University Average	29.8 percent
University of Idaho	33.1 percent