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About this project
The Higher Ed Pay Tracker, produced by The Chronicle of Higher Education’s data & interactives team and newsroom, is designed to provide information on the pay and perks that are the building blocks of the compensation packages college presidents receive. We hope you will use this interactive tool to do a deep dive into the data that will help you better understand one of the most broadly scrutinized issues in higher education: the salaries of college presidents.
Our pay tracker will make it easy for you to see the different components of executive compensation and how much presidents’ wages have grown over time. You can also get the data you need to compare the earnings of presidents with their peers and see what slice of a college’s expenses go toward the chief executive’s pay package.
We look forward to hearing your feedback and suggestions.
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Methodology
These data show the total compensation received by chief executives in two sectors: (1) public college and university systems, from the 2010-11 through the 2016-17 fiscal years, and in the 2018 through 2021 calendar years; and (2) private colleges, from 2008 through 2019.
All individuals who served as chief executive during those periods, including interim and acting leaders, are included. Oftentimes, more than one chief executive served at an institution during a given year. Presidents who served less than the full year are noted.
Compensation values for all employees reflect the compensation earned from the institution (and associated foundations) across a full fiscal or calendar year, regardless of the role or roles held by those employees during the full year.
Information about presidents’ tenures and prior employment were obtained from college websites, newspaper archives, or college offices. Photographs were obtained from college websites.
The Chronicle’s algorithm for determining “similar institutions” uses factors such as Carnegie Classification, endowment value, total expenditures, percent of expenditures spent on instruction, admissions rate, and religious affiliation, as well as enrollment, percent of graduate students, percent of undergraduates who are 25 or older, percent of Pell Grant recipients, and median SAT score.
Institutions’ total expenses come from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or Ipeds, and in the case of expenses, are for the most recent year available at the time the salary data were gathered — usually the academic year preceding the compensation year. Those data are excluded for certain systems.
Public-College Data
The Chronicle surveyed institutions to collect these public data. Our analysis generally includes all public doctoral universities (nonmilitary service) in the United States as well as all state college and university systems or governing boards with at least three campuses or 50,000 total students enrolled across the system in the most-recent academic year.
This analysis does not include systems, state boards, or administrative departments that oversee only technical or community colleges, nor does it include institutions in Puerto Rico. A limited number of system offices report relevant data to Ipeds. Likewise, said system offices don’t report institution-relevant data, such as average professor salary or tuition and fees, to Ipeds.
For chief executives who led a campus and system jointly, the Ipeds data to which their pay is being compared reflect data corresponding only to the main campus. Across the history of this project, The Chronicle has asked institutions to submit the values of various types of reportable compensation earned by their chief executives, from both the public entity and any nonprofit organizations associated with the public entity. To capture a representative and diverse sample, The Chronicle’s methodology to arrive at a universe of colleges to survey has changed over the last decade.
- From the 2010-11 through the 2012-13 fiscal years, the survey universe was based on public research universities and affiliated systems with enrollments of at least 10,000, and universities with smaller enrollments that were state flagships.
- From the 2013-14 through the 2016-17 fiscal years, the survey universe was based on the methodology detailed above. To ascertain doctoral universities in those years, The Chronicle used the 2010 update of the Basic Classification program, developed by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.
- In the 2018 calendar year and the years that followed, the survey universe was based on the methodology detailed above. To ascertain doctoral universities in those years, The Chronicle used the 2015 update of the Carnegie Basic Classification program.
- For the 2013-14 through the 2016-17 fiscal years, we have included on the profile pages of chief executives the names and titles of the five highest-paid employees at each institution, as provided by the institutions. For the 2018 calendar year and the years that followed, The Chronicle limited the collection of employee-compensation data to the three highest-paid employees.
- From the 2012-13 through the 2016-17 fiscal years, The Chronicle elected to collect data reflecting the reportable compensation earned by former chief executives in the period following their final year as institution leader. The Chronicle continued to request that information in the 2018 calendar year and the years that followed. The value of nontaxable benefits is not included in the sum of total compensation for former chief executives across all respective years. The Chronicle asked institutions to disclose the value of “non-payroll compensation” in the 2018 calendar year and the years that followed for chief executives who earned such compensation that year.
Public-college compensation data are not directly comparable to data reported for private nonprofit institutions. (For more on private-college data, see below.) The Chronicle cautions against comparing public-college compensation across various years, given the changes in the formula used to calculate total compensation, as well as the change in the reporting period from fiscal to calendar year.
As of publication time, the following institutions had not submitted compensation data associated with their current and former chief executives to The Chronicle for 2021. Open-records requests sent to some of these institutions also had not been fulfilled by publication time:
- Auburn University
- Ball State University
- Central Michigan University
- Cleveland State University
- CUNY Graduate School and University Center
- CUNY System Office
- Delaware State University
- Eastern Michigan University
- Florida Atlantic University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Georgia State University
- Indiana University at Bloomington
- Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis
- Indiana University System
- Jackson State University
- Lamar University
- Marshall University
- Michigan Technological University
- Missouri State University at Springfield
- Missouri University of Science and Technology
- Nevada System of Higher Education-System Office
- New Mexico State University
- North Carolina A&T State University
- Ohio State University
- Old Dominion University
- Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
- Southern University-Board and System
- Stephen F Austin State University
- Stony Brook University
- SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
- Temple University
- Tennessee Board of Regents
- Tennessee State University
- Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi
- Texas A&M University at Kingsville
- Towson University
- University of Alabama System Office
- University of Alabama at Birmingham
- University of Alabama in Huntsville
- University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
- University of Alaska System of Higher Education
- University of Alaska at Fairbanks
- University of Arizona
- University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
- University of California-System Administration Central Office
- University of California-Berkeley
- University of California-Davis
- University of California-Irvine
- University of California-Los Angeles
- University of California-Riverside
- University of California-San Diego
- University of California-Santa Barbara
- University of California-Santa Cruz
- University of California-Merced
- University of Cincinnati
- University of Delaware
- University of Hawaii at Hilo
- University of Idaho
- University of Nevada-Las Vegas
- University of Nevada-Reno
- University of New Mexico
- University of New Orleans
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of South Alabama
- University of South Carolina at Columbia
- University of South Florida
- University of Southern Mississippi
- University of Texas at Tyler
- University of Toledo
- University of Vermont
- University of Virginia
- Washburn University
- Western Kentucky University
Compensation components
Total compensation. For presidents this is the sum of the values of “base salary,” “bonus,” “other compensation” and "nontaxable benefits." For highly-paid employees, total compensation continues to be determined by collecting the values of reportable compensation earned by each employee. Reportable compensation encompasses “base salary,” “bonus,” and “other compensation.”
Base salary. The value of the total base compensation earned by the employee.
Bonus. The value of all bonuses and incentive compensation earned by the employee.
Other compensation. This includes three groups of compensation: Deferred-compensation paid out, which is reported here when it becomes payable, is paid, or is employee-deferred in the relevant period; Severance, which is compensation made to the employee upon his or her resignation or firing, as determined by his or her contract, a separation agreement, or a legal settlement. This can include severance pay or other agreed-upon separation pay; it can also include additional reportablecompensation that is not covered by the above groups.
Nontaxable benefits. This reflects the value of nontaxable benefits, including health and medical benefits, life insurance, housing provided by an employer, personal legal and financial services, dependent care, adoption assistance, tuition assistance, and cafeteria plans. It is available starting in 2015.
Private-College Data
Before reporting compensation in 2015, we reviewed data for the private nonprofit baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degree-granting and Title-IV-participating institutions with the 500 largest endowments, as reported to Ipeds. Some nonprofit colleges don’t report the value of their endowments to Ipeds, and those were excluded from our analysis. In 2015, The Chronicle tweaked an aspect of its methodology, to include institutions that primarily award baccalaureate degrees or above. The 2018 Calender year data revised the formula again to include institutions based on their expenditures rather than endowments, and included only those institutions with expenditures of $100-million or more in expenditures.
Compensation data were compiled from the Internal Revenue Service’s Form 990, which is filed by most nonprofit entities and are reported by calendar year. Some private nonprofit universities cite a religious exemption from filing the Form 990 and were therefore excluded from our analysis. The excluded institutions are Brigham Young University- Idaho, Brigham Young University- Provo, and Brigham Young University-Hawaii.
Some Roman Catholic colleges whose presidents are members of religious orders pay no direct compensation to their chief executives, instead allocating money to the religious order. Compensation for these presidents may be reported as $0.
Names and titles of “highly-paid employees” provided for comparison are cleaned and clarified where possible, in other cases they appear as they did on the colleges’ Form 990s.
As of publication time, 2019 data was unavailable for the following institutions.
- Adelphi University
- Baker College
- Calvin University
- Campbellsville University
- Columbia College Chicago
- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Daytona Beach (Fla.)
- Long Island University
- New York Institute of Technology
- New York University
- Pacific University
- Pepperdine University
- Roosevelt University
- Seattle Pacific University
- St. Lawrence University
- University of the Incarnate Word
Compensation components
Total compensation. the sum of the values of "base salary," "bonus," "other compensation," and "nontaxable benefits."
Base salary. Base salary plus sick pay paid by the employer and employee contributions to a 401(k) or 403(b) plan.
Bonus.Incentive pay and signing bonuses.
Nontaxable benefits. Health and medical benefits, life insurance, housing provided by the employer, personal legal and financial services, dependent care, adoption assistance, tuition assistance, and cafeteria plans.
Other compensation.Miscellaneous pay and benefits, including severance payments, tax gross-ups (money an employer provides an employee for taxes paid on benefits), vacation leave cashed out, debt forgiveness, fellowships, employer-provided vehicles and parking, housing payments, travel, meals, moving expenses, entertainment, spending accounts, and club dues. Vested deferred compensation, meaning money set aside in previous years that was paid out to the employee in the current year, can also be included in other pay. May also include interest accrued on deferred compensation.
Deferred paid out. Unlike in public institution data, the value of this type of compensation can be included in base, bonus or other.
