Faculty Compensation Survey

The AAUP’s annual Faculty Compensation Survey (FCS) program was established in 1958 and is the largest independent source of data on both full-time and part-time faculty salaries and fringe benefits. The survey is open to all nonprofit degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States and serves as a reliable source of independently verified and validated data for faculty and other higher education stakeholders, such as trustees, policy makers, economists, researchers, media, parents, and the public. The survey compiles compensation data on approximately 400,000 full-time and 100,000 part-time faculty members at nearly 900 colleges and universities, representing faculty in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. 

Data Collected

The FCS collects the following data from institutions:

  • Number, average salaries, and tenure status of full-time faculty, disaggregated by faculty rank, gender, and contract length.
  • Number, average salaries, and change in average salaries for full-time continuing faculty, disaggregated by faculty rank and contract length.
  • Employee contributions to medical insurance and retirement plans for full-time faculty.
  • Dependent tuition benefits for full-time faculty.
  • Base salaries and supplements for senior administrators. 
  • Number, pay, and fringe benefits of part-time faculty members who were paid per course section in the previous academic year. 

Colleges and universities submit their data using the FCS Data Submission and Results Portal (see instructions and FAQ). 

Survey Results

Data collection concludes in March each year, and preliminary data and summary statistics are released each April. A full Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession is published each summer in the Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, summarizing and interpreting the survey results in the context of broader trends in US higher education. Final datasets are released each July. 

Detailed institution-level results are published in several formats, including: 

  • The appendixes to the Annual Report, which list survey results by institution. Updated appendixes are published each July. 
  • The AAUP’s interactive data website, which includes historical FCS data going back to 2014–15 and provides drilldown capabilities for producing peer comparison reports and summarizing data by region, state, institution size, Carnegie Basic Classification, and other variables. The website also provides tools for exploring federal data on faculty salaries and the makeup of the academic workforce (academic ranks, demographics, tenure status, contract lengths, etc.) 
  • Complete datasets, which provide the data from the appendixes to the Annual Report in MS-Excel format with supplemental fields. AAUP chapter leaders, AAUP state conference officers, and AFT local or state federation presidents may request FCS data access free of charge for their business purposes. Institutional research offices and human resource offices may purchase access to the data. 

Additional Information

Please contact the AAUP FCS staff at [email protected] to inquire about the FCS.