Faculty Salary Structure for a College or University

Abstract

Consideration of structure enters the study of faculty salaries in various ways. In work recently reported at a professional association meeting [14], a model was developed with an initial structure of salaries for a hypothetical institution. Effects upon that structure were studied for alternative combinations of across-theboard percentage adjustments to protect real income and selective increases for merit. In contrast, much of the literature on salary structure has started the other way around. The distribution of salaries that are the outcome of existing policies and practices, explicit or not, is the starting point for statistical studies to identify the determinants of higher salaries, considerations such as teaching performance, publication record, academic discipline, and sex. Studies of this type are exemplified by Katz [11] for salary distribution within a single institution, and by Tuckman [17] when aggregate data are used covering institutions nationally. Geographic region is included as a determinant in Tuckman and Tuckman [ 16]. The time shape of the salary curve over a lifetime has been studied by Johnson and Stafford [10] with respect to the effect thereon of professional experience and other factors. In the present article, structure is considered in a different way. It is taken as referring not to the distribution of salaries (hypothetical or observed), but to the framework of salary rates. A structure of salary rates is designed as a policy instrument to serve the objectives selected. We first outline alternative approaches a college or university could follow in structuring the movement of faculty through various salary levels. Apart from institutions having no differentiation by rank, and leaving aside until later differences in adjustment for inflation, the fol-