College Costs too Much? Don't Blame Me

College is pricey. And the price will just keep going up. That much is for sure.

Unfortunately (for me anyway), professor salaries won't. Adjusted for inflation, college professors have, on average, received a .25% salary increase since 1986. In that same time period doctors have received a 34% raise, lawyers an 18% raise, and engineers a 5% raise. Again, professors have received a one fourth of one-percent raise, meaning they are not even keeping up with inflation.

In the public eye, faculty salaries seem to loom large as the reason tuition keeps going up, according to a recent story in the Chronicle of Higher Education. That may be due to the few high profile (e.g., certain "celebrity professor") cases that get reported in the media. However, for their long hours—professors work 55 hours per week on average—faculty generally don't make what you might expect.

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) wonders why faculty salaries continue to lag. They ask, "Where are the priorities?" in their most recent report on the subject. But you might expect such a question from the group representing faculty interests.

As you might expect, faculty in certain disciplines make more than others. It's very simple: if that professor could ply his or her trade outside of academe and make more, he or she will make a higher salary as a professor than others. (These are disciplines you might expect: medicine, law, engineering, business. No, education is not one of them. Nor are most of the social sciences or humanities.) It also depends on where you teach: certain universities pay more than others. Again, no big surprise.

Please don't take this post as a "complaint." It's not. It's just fair warning that when you send your son or daughter off to college to not blame me for the bill! Of course, most professors didn't get into college teaching for the money. To us, we consider the price tag on our Ph.D.s to be "priceless."