We've grown up most our lives, hearing that being an educator, while certainly noble, was never an occupation to gain wealth. Certainly, such a trend extends into the collegiate level, but the disparity in the pay scale is certainly greater as one examines salary tendencies varied on subject matter taught.
First, let's take a look at the Frostburg Salaries, by Department, and in Order:
Marketing and Finance: $93, 439
Accounting: $92, 390
Department of Management: $91, 101
Economics: $79, 128
Computer Science and Information Technology: $77, 464
Physics/Engineering: $77, 319
Social Work: $73, 186
Geography: $70, 457
Mathematics: $70, 283
Music: $67, 960
Chemistry: $67, 341
Health and Physical Education: $ 66, 339
Visual Arts: $65, 656
Nursing: $65, 000
Political Science: $64, 804
English: $64, 060
Psychology: $64, 046
Educational Professions: $63,284
Department of Recreation and Parks Management: $62, 697
Mass Communication: $61, 827
History: $61, 739
Biology: $61, 303
Library: $59, 753
Philosophy: $56, 791
Sociology: $55, 885
Theatre/Dance: $55, 323
Foreign Language and Literature: $ 55, 017
Communication Studies: $50, 251
And this is how the majors distribution plays out at FSU:
Business Administration and Management, General 15%
Liberal Arts and Sciences/Liberal Studies 8%
Psychology, General 8%
Early Childhood Education and Teaching 6%
Mass Communication/Media Studies 4%
Interesting fact: The department of management consists of 12 faculty members, whose total combined salary is $1, 093, 213. By contrast, the Educational Professions department consists of 24 members, with a combined salary of $1, 518, 839.
So, based on these numbers, I went to Facebook, posted this information, and saw what some people had to say (both of those who commented wished to remain anonymous)
“$43,188 is a pretty significant difference in mean salary, almost double what the lowest mean earner is making. I feel like, though, the higher ranked departments have more specialized staff (i.e. more full time professors) which would qualify them for a higher salary. Without further information it would be difficult to make a definite decision regarding a change, but going off just the numbers here, I would say that salaries should be adjust to normalize the means--salaries at the top should be lowered to raise the salaries at the bottom.”
“I'm surprised the Music Dept has as much as it does while playing the constant "We Need More" card about everything, but sadly, I'm not surprised by how little Foreign Language makes. Yeah, that's my job, actually. It was really funny scrolling all the way down to find it. Why is it communication with other people is at the bottom of our national to-do list?”
Kyle, is your first list, of "the Frostburg salaries," the AVERAGE salaries by department?
ReplyDeleteAlso, could you link to the database from which you're generating these numbers?
Also, while subject matter certainly contributes to the disparities, there are other factors. Communication Studies, for example, ranks low as a department in part because its relatively few faculty members are of low rank: two assistant professors and four lecturers. In addition, those two assistant professors are recent hires; only one is tenured, and that happened only this past school year. Traditionally, salary increases come from promotions in rank and longevity in office, and Communication Studies is in no position currently to benefit from those.