Salary Information and the Job Search

When candidates consider applying for a position, they are naturally interested in the salary they might be offered. Job ads are replete with language offering “competitive” salaries, or salaries “commensurate with experience and qualifications.” But this language means virtually nothing, as there are no real benchmarks for competitiveness or commensurability in faculty or administrative salaries.

The AAUP’s average salary figures are available on The Chronicle’s website. But these averages are very rough, as they can be grossly distorted by the presence of professional schools, small cadres of faculty at a specific rank, and a variety of other factors. They thus only provide a very rough guess about the “competitiveness” of salaries at a particular institution.

I admit I am puzzled that hiring institutions do not have more complete disclosure of anticipated salary ranges for their searches. I do know that any time specifics of a position are published, they can constrain the search in various ways. Particularly in institutions where salaries are low, publishing a range may prevent some candidates from applying. Publishing a range may lead all candidates to expect to be hired at its top, which will irritate both candidates and those doing the hiring.

The upside of publishing ranges, though, is that prospective applicants for whom the potential salary really is a deal-breaker will not apply. Search committees often put tremendous effort into evaluating candidates—up to and including on-campus visits—only to see the salary offer stop the candidates’ interest in the position. The only consolation for the hiring institution in this situation, and it is a small one, is that a candidate’s withdrawal becomes a data point in an argument for increasing salaries. Meanwhile, everyone’s time and effort is wasted.