Women represented slightly more than half of all employees in three of six selected positions at colleges in 2016, but they still earned only 85 percent to 87 percent of what their male counterparts did. Women’s pay was closest to men’s in the position with the lowest female representation: top executive.
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Representation and pay gap
| Top executive | 5,103 | 18,153 | 21.9% | $228,228 | $245,830 | 92.8% |
| Assistant dean | 8,835 | 8,250 | 51.7% | $101,452 | $116,087 | 87.4% |
| Senior officer | 71,817 | 120,582 | 37.3% | $114,672 | $131,243 | 87.4% |
| Department head | 133,364 | 118,624 | 52.9% | $69,654 | $81,584 | 85.4% |
| Administrative officer | 61,099 | 52,500 | 53.8% | $85,417 | $100,358 | 85.1% |
| Dean | 31,166 | 51,564 | 37.7% | $126,057 | $151,650 | 83.1% |
Note: Data are based on a survey conducted in late 2016 and early 2017 that gathered information on 191 executive and senior-level-administrative positions at 1,125 institutions. Both public and private nonprofit, and both two-year and four-year, institutions participated in the survey.
Source: Bichsel, Jacqueline, and McChesney, Jasper. The Gender Pay Gap and the Representation of Women in Higher Education Administrative Positions: The Century So Far. Research report. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR), February 2017. Available from www.cupahr.org/surveys/briefs.aspx.