Base salaries for senior administrators at American colleges rose by 2 percent this year but did not keep up with inflation, said an annual report released this week by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.
Inflation amounted to 3.2 percent from 2010 to 2011. The 2-percent rise in salaries for the 2012 fiscal year represents a gain over the previous year, when the administrators’ pay increased by 1.4 percent. However, their salaries have yet to fully rebound in the sluggish economy.
For much of the past decade, pay increases for senior administrators—who include presidents, deans, and directors of administrative units—hovered around 4 percent.
“Obviously these increases do appear to lag behind inflation, but we are still very pleased to see institutions making salary-increase pools a priority,” said Andy Brantley, president of the association, known as CUPA-HR.
The average salary increase for administrators at private institutions was higher than that for those at public ones, with administrators’ pay increasing by 2.5 percent at private colleges and 1.5 percent at public ones. However, the public-college administrators fared much better this year than last, when their salaries were flat from the year before.
Mr. Brantley said his organization continues to be concerned about the gap between pay increases for public- and private-college administrators. That public colleges were able to give pay increases at all, though, is good news, he added.
Biggest Increase in Athletics
Athletics-department officials received the biggest pay bumps, with a median increase of 2.3 percent, the highest of all job categories. At public colleges, athletics administrators were the only administrators whose raises broke the 2-percent mark.
Mr. Brantley said he was not surprised by the pay trends for athletics administrators, given that funds for salaries in athletics departments can come from sources more varied—such as supporting foundations—than can the salaries of other administrators.
Among other senior administrators, college presidents received a pay increase to match inflation. The median base salary for them was $255,849 for 2012, up 3.2 percent from the previous year. Pay for presidents ranged from $170,157 at two-year institutions to $392,150 at doctoral institutions.
Deans of medicine were the highest-paid senior administrators, earning a median salary of $474,212. Other medical professionals rounded out the ranks of the highest-paid administrators, with chief administrators of medical centers and chief health-professions officers coming in second and third, respectively.
The outlook for the hiring of senior administrators is more positive than in recent years, according to the report. Most colleges said they would hire at about the same rate as they did the previous year, and fewer expected hiring to decrease than expected so last year.
Mr. Brantley said CUPA-HR projected that institutions would be able to give modest raises in the coming year, but he did not expect pay increases to reach prerecession levels.
“It will be a long time before we see median increases of 4 percent,” he said, “just based on the challenges of our colleges and universities over all.”
The report reflected the salaries of 76,933 people in 291 senior administrative positions at 1,240 institutions. The survey can be ordered online at CUPA-HR’s Web site.