Median Salaries of Midlevel College Administrators, 2011-12

Salaries for midlevel administrators rose by a median of 2 percent this year over last year, matching the median pay increase for senior administrators and coming in slightly higher than the 1.9-percent median increase for faculty members, says an annual report released this week by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Midlevel administrators—who include auditors, curators, police officers, coaches, and other staff—received a bigger pay increase from the 2011 to the 2012 fiscal years than they did in the previous year, when the median salary increase was 1.3 percent.

Still, pay increases for midlevel administrators lagged behind inflation, which rose 3.2 percent from 2010 to 2011.

Even though this year’s increases trailed inflation, “we are pleased that many institutions have been able to provide some adjustment to employee salaries,” Andy Brantley, president of the association, known as CUPA-HR, said in written remarks.

“Our hope,” he said, “is that the economy will continue to improve, and that institutions will be able to allocate larger salary increase pools next year.”

As with other types of positions, private colleges gave midlevel administrators better raises on average than public ones did, according to the report, which reflects data for 489 public and 595 private institutions. For those employees, private institutions provided salary increases of 2.2 percent, compared with 1.4 percent at public colleges.

The highest-paid midlevel administrators across all institution types were staff physicians, who earned median pay of $134,808. Security guards were the lowest-paid midlevel administrators, earning median pay of $28,293.

At doctoral institutions, football coaches were paid more than any midlevel administrator at any institution type, earning median pay of $267,800.