Four-year and two-year colleges across the country employed more than 1.5 million full-time workers in noninstructional roles in 2017-18. Of the 13 noninstructional job categories, only managers at four-year institutions made an average of more than $100,000 a year. The job category with the most workers across all six sectors was office and administrative-support employees, followed by managers and service workers.
4-year public (735 colleges)
| Rank | Job category
| Average number of employees per college | Average pay per employee |
| 1. | Management | 137 | $107,467 |
| 2. | Public service | 11 | $70,865 |
| 3. | Research | 43 | $67,918 |
| 4. | Computer, engineering, and science | 144 | $65,996 |
| 5. | Business and financial operations | 137 | $62,736 |
| 6. | Community, social service, legal, arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 97 | $61,306 |
| 7. | Health-care practitioners and technical | 37 | $60,921 |
| 8. | Librarians, curators, archivists, and academic-affairs and other education services | 90 | $54,886 |
| 9. | Natural resources, construction, and maintenance | 61 | $49,104 |
| 10. | Production, transportation, and material moving | 14 | $47,767 |
| 11. | Sales and related | 3 | $41,483 |
| 12. | Office and administrative support | 201 | $41,112 |
| 13. | Service | 139 | $36,475 |
| | All full-time noninstructional staff | 1,115 | $59,924 |
4-year private nonprofit (1,559 colleges)
| Rank | Job category | Average number of employees | Average pay per employee |
| 1. | Management | 56 | $110,712 |
| 2. | Public service | 1 | $82,112 |
| 3. | Research | 12 | $74,035 |
| 4. | Computer, engineering, and science | 32 | $71,642 |
| 5. | Business and financial operations | 34 | $68,159 |
| 6. | Health-care practitioners and technical | 6 | $61,930 |
| 7. | Community, social service, legal, arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 32 | $58,425 |
| 8. | Natural resources, construction, and maintenance | 11 | $55,498 |
| 9. | Librarians, curators, archivists, and academic-affairs and other education services | 32 | $53,349 |
| 10. | Production, transportation, and material moving | 2 | $45,693 |
| 11. | Office and administrative support | 58 | $44,228 |
| 12. | Sales and related | 2 | $44,328 |
| 13. | Service | 38 | $38,628 |
| | All full-time noninstructional staff | 315 | $64,974 |
4-year for-profit (459 colleges)
| Rank | Job category | Average number of employees per college | Average pay per employee |
| 1. | Management | 17 | $100,962 |
| 2. | Computer, engineering, and science | 4 | $70,688 |
| 3. | Research | 0 | $64,921 |
| 4. | Community, social service, legal, arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 9 | $55,463 |
| 5. | Sales and related | 6 | $55,150 |
| 6. | Business and financial operations | 9 | $54,717 |
| 7. | Health-care practitioners and technical | 0 | $54,630 |
| 8. | Public service | 0 | $52,776 |
| 9. | Librarians, curators, archivists, and academic-affairs and other education services | 19 | $50,298 |
| 10. | Office and administrative support | 15 | $44,132 |
| 11. | Production, transportation, and material moving | 0 | $40,626 |
| 12. | Service | 3 | $34,369 |
| 13. | Natural resources, construction, and maintenance | 1 | $31,633 |
| | All full-time noninstructional staff | 82 | $61,127 |
2-year public (873 colleges)
| Rank | Job category | Average number of employees per college | Average pay per employee |
| 1. | Management | 34 | $89,845 |
| 2. | Research | 0 | $66,523 |
| 3. | Computer, engineering, and science | 14 | $60,747 |
| 4. | Business and financial operations | 16 | $55,922 |
| 5. | Health-care practitioners and technical | 1 | $54,160 |
| 6. | Community, social service, legal, arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 18 | $52,924 |
| 7. | Public service | 1 | $52,923 |
| 8. | Librarians, curators, archivists, and academic-affairs and other education services | 28 | $51,524 |
| 9. | Production, transportation, and material moving | 1 | $50,596 |
| 10. | Sales and related | 1 | $46,242 |
| 11. | Natural resources, construction, and maintenance | 6 | $45,865 |
| 12. | Office and administrative support | 52 | $43,278 |
| 13. | Service | 26 | $40,279 |
| | All full-time noninstructional staff | 198 | $55,467 |
2-year private nonprofit (98 colleges)
| Rank | Job category | Average number of employees per college | Average pay per employee |
| 1. | Business and financial operations | 2 | $83,935 |
| 2. | Management | 8 | $83,362 |
| 3. | Computer, engineering, and science | 1 | $66,411 |
| 4. | Research | 0 | $52,156 |
| 5. | Production, transportation, and material moving | 0 | $48,607 |
| 6. | Health-care practitioners and technical | 0 | $48,557 |
| 7. | Librarians, curators, archivists, and academic-affairs and other education services | 15 | $44,334 |
| 8. | Community, social service, legal, arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 2 | $42,423 |
| 9. | Sales and related | 5 | $42,208 |
| 10. | Office and administrative support | 5 | $37,329 |
| 11. | Public service | 0 | $35,803 |
| 12. | Natural resources, construction, and maintenance | 1 | $34,333 |
| 13. | Service | 1 | $33,842 |
| | All full-time noninstructional staff | 39 | $52,945 |
2-year for-profit (502 colleges)
| Rank | Job category | Average number of employees per college | Average pay per employee |
| 1. | Management | 5 | $80,355 |
| 2. | Community, social service, legal, arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media | 1 | $58,725 |
| 3. | Research | 0 | $57,903 |
| 4. | Computer, engineering, and science | 0 | $51,098 |
| 5. | Public service | 0 | $48,650 |
| 6. | Business and financial operations | 2 | $48,021 |
| 7. | Sales and related | 2 | $46,583 |
| 8. | Librarians, curators, archivists, and academic-affairs and other education services | 4 | $44,779 |
| 9. | Health-care practitioners and technical | 0 | $40,283 |
| 10. | Office and administrative support | 4 | $37,014 |
| 11. | Service | 0 | $32,025 |
| 12. | Natural resources, construction, and maintenance | 0 | $31,651 |
| 13. | Production, transportation, and material moving | 0 | $29,030 |
| | All full-time noninstructional staff | 20 | $53,378 |
Note: Data cover salaries for full-time noninstructional, nonmedical staff members at degree-granting higher-education institutions in the United States that were eligible to receive Title IV federal financial aid in 2017-18. Although in some instances the average number of workers in a particular category in a sector rounded to zero, average salaries were available because there were several such workers across the sector. For each sector, job categories are ranked from highest to lowest average pay. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to Ruth Hammond.
Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data
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