A study of the methodology used in the determination of entry level faculty salaries, salary adjustments, and annual salary increases in selected colleges and universities in the United States

Faculty salary administration in higher education requires decisions in the areas of entry level salary determination, salary adjustments, and annual salary increases. In this study a survey was conducted of 250 public and private comprehensive colleges and universities which probed the methodology of the decision process in these areas.

Major findings of this study revealed that:

1. While market competition was considered the dominant factor in entry level salary decisions in the majority of institutions surveyed, there was a definite lack of a consistent data base for making judgments about this competition;

2. The consideration of market competition as the dominant factor in entry level salary decisions was indicated to be significantly less in institutions with collective bargaining;

3. Formal annual programs for salary adjustments were present in 41 percent of these institutions, with an additional 21 percent reporting occasional use of one time funds for this purpose. However 25.5 percent of the institutions surveyed indicated they had no formal program for salary adjustments;

4. For institutions which reported salary adjustments, the mean allocation to correct inequities resulting from salary compression represented one-half of the total adjustment funds available;

5. Almost 62 percent of the institutions surveyed awarded merit increases as either a fixed percentage or fixed dollar amount added permanently to the base salary, 10.5 percent awarded merit increases for one year only.

Major conclusions reached in this study were:

1. The establishment of entry level salaries in these institutions is highly autocratic and intuitive;

2. An increase in the number of institutions with faculty collective bargaining would likely intensify the problems of faculty recruitment and retention in high demand areas;

3. Salary compression was perceived to be the major issue of equity concern by the chief executive officers of the surveyed institutions, suggesting that inequities due to race and sex have for the most part been resolved;

4. The overall impacts of Carnegie classification and funding sources upon the decision processes of faculty salary administration explored in this study were insignificant in comparison to the effects of collective bargaining.