Faculty Salaries in Ontario: Compression, Inversion, and the Effects of Alternative Forms of Representation

Abstract

The author estimates the incidence of salary compression and inversion, and the effects of different forms of collective representation (unions and special plans, with and without binding arbitration), for faculty at Ontario universities over the 1970–2004 period. The data show large decreases in the salary differential between full and associate professors and severe compression and inversion in age-salary profiles in the 2000s. Union representation had no effect on salaries compared to no formal representation. Special plans without binding arbitration led to lower salaries, while special plans with binding arbitration yielded higher salaries, but all of the estimated effects were small. Average salaries were lower the higher the proportion of female faculty in the 1970s, but this effect became statistically insignificant by the early 1990s. Finally, faculty salaries responded to the cost of living in the university's city, and were higher, on average, in universities with higher average research productivity.