That's how sociologist Thrry Russell of the Office of Professional Relations at the American Chemical Society interprets the 1987-88 salary survey for 262 academic specialities published by Oklahoma State University.
The survey shows that full chemistry professors' salaries are higher than the average of professors' salaries at the 80 universities in the study while associate and assistant professors in chemistry receive below-average salaries.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that younger professors are poorly paid. One major reason why their salaries look so bad compared to the average, says Russell, is that the average itself has been inflated by the bidding wars that have pushed up salaries for junior faculty in engineering and business. Salaries for other fields—such as sociology—look even worse than chemists' compared to the average, Russell explains.
In addition, Russell sees a hint of good news for chemists in salaries given to assistant professors hired in 1987. The ...
