Physical Sciences Faculty Pay Rises At State And Land Grant Schools

[Editor's note: This is the second installment in a two-part series. The first installment, which appeared in the Oct. 15, 1990, issue of The Scientist, focused on the salaries of state university and land grant college faculty in the life sciences. This article discusses the salaries of faculty in the physical sciences at these institutions.] Date: November 12, 1990 A recent survey of institutions belonging to the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges found that most of these schools boosted annual pay for their faculty in the physical sciences last year. The pay raises reflected the need to adjust income for inflation and to hire new professors at competitive salaries, administrators at these institutions say. The study examined 1989 salaries of 86,765 faculty members in nine- and 10-month positions at 83 state universities and land grant colleges. Surveys were filled out by administrators on behalf of professors, associate profes- sors, assistant professors, and instructors. The salary increases ranged from an average of 2 percent for full professors of oceanography to a 10.4 percent average pay hike awarded full organic chemistry professors. School officials rely on the survey results because the study offers a glimpse into what other institutions are paying their faculty, according to Lee Tarrant, a senior research analyst in the department of institutional research at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, which compiled the survey results. The annual survey tallies salary trends for more than 250 academic disciplines, including science and nonscience fields. Pay for most faculty members in the physical sciences increased at about the same rate as inflation, in keeping with the overall trend among these schools to provide cost-of-living adjustments. The same held true for salaries of state university and land grant college faculty in the life sciences (The Scientist, Oct. 15, 1990, page 26). In addition, average salary increases for physical sciences and life sciences faculty reflected higher pay given to the newest faculty members, who were often assistant professors hired to replace a growing number of retirees. "The salary of the retiree isn't a whole lot above the level being demanded by the new person," says James A. MacMahon, dean of the College of Science at Utah State University in Logan. "And we have to pay that because we're getting fewer highly qualified people, [such as] new assistant professors with one to two years' postdoctoral experience." This difficulty in hiring qualified faculty, he says, occurs "across the board, in all sciences." Incoming faculty members' requests for higher salaries cause administrative headaches, according to Ronald Downey, director of educational research at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kans.: "It's called salary compression, and it's a problem. No one wants to get caught paying the new assistant professor the same as the existing associate professor." The salaries of physics faculty as reported in the survey exemplify the situation. Current assistant professors were awarded average hikes of 6.4 percent, to $35,827, while newly hired assistant professors received salaries averaging 9.8 percent more than last year's new hires, or $35,816. The result was that new assistant professors edged ever closer to existing associate professors, whose pay hikes averaged 6 percent, to $41,621. Overall, university officials note, physical sciences faculty didn't fare quite as well as their colleagues in the life sciences, whose pay hikes sometimes climbed two to three percentage points higher than inflation. Several school officials say the higher pay for life scientists reflects the growth of biotechnology in the commercial marketplace, which often forced universities to offer faculty more competitive salaries. "There's a lot of money going into research on AIDS, malnutrition, and low birth rates," says Richard Howard, director of institutional research at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "That's versus the basic stuff in chemistry and physics, with smaller grants." Salaries for physical sciences faculty also may have increased, but at slightly lower rates, because competition with industry wasn't as intense as it was for life sciences professors. "Some of the industries where chemists and geologists are employed experienced a real lack of development," says MacMahon of Utah State. He cites exploration of fossil fuels and solar energy as examples. The survey found that the average annual salary increase for full chemistry professors was 5.8 percent, to $60,533. Associate professors of chemistry received raises averaging 5.1 percent, to $39,964, while assistant professors of chemistry were awarded pay increases averaging 4.9 percent, to $33,429. Meanwhile, full geology professors were given raises averaging 5.3 percent, to $55,351, and associate professors of geology received increases averaging 4.2 percent, to $39,377. Assistant professors of geology got average increases of 4.3 percent, to $32,629. Although an extremely high salary increase--23.6 percent--was recorded for geology instructors, the sample size (four individuals) was too small to allow for any generalizations. MacMahon predicts greater demand for geologists in the coming year, thanks to recent events in the Middle East. "Now that energy costs are a problem again, exploration should increase," he says. "And when industry need goes up, overall demand for geologists should rise." The outlook for faculty in physics, chemistry, and oceanography, however, is less certain without increased funding, which may be in doubt owing to federal budgetary constraints, says MacMahon. "If there's more money available, there's more freedom for people to move about," says Neil H. Timm, director of management information and policy analysis at the University of Pittsburgh. "But if the economy is down, demand will be down." Edward R. Silverman is a staff reporter for New York Newsday.

Physical Sciences Faculty Pay Rises At State And Land Grant Schools

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