Study ranks MU salaries 33 out of 34 schools

Hiring the best teachers could prove difficult with such low salaries.

By Margaux Henquinet

Published June 3, 2009

A recently released study done by the American Association of University Professors reports MU salaries for ranked professors second to last out of 34 public institutions studied, ahead of only the University of Oregon.

MU's salaries ranked in the bottom five for positions including full, associate and assistant professors, and ranked below the 20th percentile in all areas.

In response to the AAUP studies, the UM system conducted a study to find how much MU salaries would need to increase to hit the AAUP median.

"Based on all of their research, 7 percent each year for three years was what we needed to raise to rise to the median," Provost Brian Foster said.

The UM system study made the assumption MU's peer universities would raise salaries 4 percent per year and found MU would need to raise salaries by 3 percent a year more to catch up to them, Foster said.

Faculty Council chairman Tom Phillips said MU's low salaries have been a longstanding concern among the faculty.

Phillips said Chancellor Brady Deaton had made a commitment to reach the AAUP median and that last year's approximately 7 percent increase was the first step toward that goal and a great morale builder for faculty.

Due to the economic crisis, there was no salary increase this year. In fact, Phillips said the faculty lost money because they now need to pay money toward their pensions, which they didn't have to do before.

"With this extraordinary fiscal storm that has hit us, we are in a particularly difficult situation," Phillips said. "We have been under-funded for years, so there's very little fat in the budget. It's difficult for us to cut anything without risking the quality of our education."

Foster said one of the main reasons for the salary increases is to keep MU competitive in the hiring market.

"We are a competitive institution, we compete to hire the very best people," he said. "If everyone else pays more than we pay, it's hard to hire the best people."

Phillips said he's concerned having lower salaries than other universities could affect the faculty as well.

"We'll be losing faculty to other universities because they'll be targeting us, we're so under-paying our best faculty," he said.

Foster said the university hopes to increase salaries more in the future, but it will all depend on the state of the economy.