College Professor Salary: What Each Rank Actually Earns

If you search for a professor salary, you get one number. That number is almost certainly wrong for the person you have in mind — not because the data is bad, but because “professor” is not one job. It covers a tenured full professor of law, a first-year assistant professor of English, a community-college instructor, and an adjunct teaching two sections for a few thousand dollars each. Averaging them produces a figure that describes none of them.

This page separates them out, using the federal and survey data the salary aggregators summarize away: pay by academic rank, pay by field, what the nine-month contract actually means, and what the near-half of faculty who work off the tenure track really earn.

How much do college professors make?

Two federal sources answer this, and they answer slightly different questions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $85,330 for postsecondary teachers as of May 2025, with the lowest 10% earning less than $49,540 and the highest 10% more than $203,580. That spread — the top decile earns more than four times the bottom — is the real story.

The National Center for Education Statistics reports an average of $97,700 for full-time instructional faculty on nine-month contracts in 2022–23. It is higher than the BLS median for two reasons: it counts only full-time faculty, and an average is pulled upward by the highest earners while a median is not.

Neither figure is wrong. They simply measure different populations, which is the first thing a single-number answer obscures.

Average professor salary by academic rank

Rank is the single biggest driver of faculty pay, and it is the breakdown most salary sites skip. These are averages for full-time instructional faculty on nine-month contracts in 2022–23:

Source: NCES, Characteristics of Postsecondary Faculty (academic year 2022–23, nine-month contracts).

A full professor averages about 64% more than an assistant professor. Those ranks are not job titles you pick — they are a promotion ladder that typically takes six to seven years per step, with tenure review sitting between assistant and associate. When someone says “professors make $135,000,” they are quoting the top of that ladder.

Note also that “professor” in casual American usage means anyone teaching at a university. In the data it means something narrower and better paid.

The nine-month contract: why the salary you see is not a yearly wage

This is the detail that changes how you should read every number above. Most full-time faculty in the US are on nine-month appointments. The federal statistics say so in their own titles — the NCES tables are explicitly for “full-time instructional faculty on 9-month contracts.”

A nine-month contract means the salary covers the academic year, not the calendar year. Institutions usually let faculty choose how it is disbursed: the full amount across nine months, or the same amount spread across twelve. A $99,000 nine-month salary is either $11,000 a month for nine months or $8,250 a month for twelve. It is the same money — the choice is a cash-flow preference, not a raise.

Summer is unpaid under that contract, which is why research grants matter so much to faculty income. But the rule governing summer pay is narrower than it is usually described. Under 2 CFR 200.430(h), which governs what may be charged to federal awards, “charges for work performed by faculty members on Federal awards during periods not included in the base salary period will be at a rate not in excess of the IBS” — the institutional base salary. The same section adds that in no event may charges to federal awards “exceed the proportionate share of the IBS for that period.”

If you are wondering what the academic calendar looks like from the other side of the desk, we cover that in do universities have summer break.

Professor salary by field: a $50,000 gap

Discipline matters nearly as much as rank. These are BLS median annual wages for postsecondary teachers by subject as of May 2025 — the same occupation, taught in the same buildings, with a spread of roughly $50,000 from top to bottom:

Source: BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, Postsecondary Teachers (median annual wages, May 2025).

The pattern is not about which subjects are considered important. It tracks what someone qualified to teach the subject could earn outside the university. Law, economics and engineering faculty have lucrative non-academic options, so universities must pay closer to market to keep them. English and communications faculty have fewer competing offers at that level, and pay reflects it.

The 44% the salary figures leave out

Every number above describes full-time faculty. According to NCES, in fall 2022 only 56% of postsecondary faculty were full-time (842,400 people). The other 44% — 665,200 people — worked part-time, and they are not paid a salary at all. They are paid by the course.

The AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey is the largest source on this group. In 2023–24, average pay per course section ranged from $3,226 at religiously affiliated master’s institutions to $6,481 at private independent baccalaureate institutions.

The arithmetic is worth doing slowly. A part-time instructor teaching three sections a semester — six a year, a heavy load — at $4,000 a section earns about $24,000 for a year of college teaching. That is the same job title, in the same classroom, as the $135,300 average for a full professor.

Benefits usually do not close the gap; they are mostly absent. AAUP found that in 2023–24 only 34.4% of institutions contributed toward retirement plans for some or all part-time faculty, and only 31.5% contributed toward medical insurance premiums. The underlying per-institution figures are published in AAUP’s part-time faculty pay workbook.

Where part-time faculty have bargained collectively, the numbers move. NEA reports that CUNY’s part-time faculty went from about $3,200 per three-credit course two contracts ago to $5,500, and then to $7,100 under a contract ratified in December 2024.

Below the adjuncts sits one more rung that no salary figure captures at all. Much introductory teaching — discussion sections, labs, grading — is done by graduate assistants, whose average US stipend was about $22,000 in 2024 according to NEA. If you are an undergraduate wondering what the person at the front of your lab section earns, that is the figure, not the $135,300.

How to look up a specific professor’s salary

National averages will not tell you what one person at one institution earns. Two routes get you closer, and they work very differently depending on who owns the university.

Public institutions. State universities are public employers, so in most states individual employee salaries are public records. That is what the salary-lookup databases you find near the top of search results are aggregating — they are republishing state payroll disclosures, not surveying anyone. Going to the state or university system’s own transparency portal generally gets you fresher and more accurate data than the aggregator.

Private institutions. These publish no payroll, but most are tax-exempt nonprofits and must file IRS Form 990. Its Schedule J reports compensation for officers, trustees, key employees and the university’s five highest compensated employees over $100,000. That is a real disclosure, but read the limit carefully: five people. At a private university those five are usually the president, investment officers, deans, and sometimes a coach — almost never a typical professor. Form 990 will not tell you what an assistant professor of history earns.

Public, private, and the union premium

Institution type shifts pay in ways that are easy to state backwards. Doctoral institutions generally pay more than master’s institutions, which pay more than baccalaureate colleges, with community colleges lowest — but prestige cuts across that, and a well-endowed liberal-arts college can outpay a regional university.

Collective bargaining is the clearer variable. NEA’s analysis of 2024 data found community-college faculty with collectively bargained contracts averaged $93,000, against $73,000 for non-union faculty in the same states and $66,000 in states without collective bargaining.

Two gaps persist within the same data. Faculty at historically Black colleges and universities earn about 75 cents on the dollar compared with other faculty; at research universities the gap is $83,000 against $112,000. Women faculty at public institutions earn about 86 cents on the dollar paid to men — 84% at research universities, but 96–98% at community colleges.

What has actually changed recently

The AAUP’s preliminary 2024–25 survey found nominal average salaries for full-time faculty rose 3.8% from fall 2023 to fall 2024. After adjusting for a 2.9% rise in the Consumer Price Index, real wages rose only 0.9%.

Faculty who stayed at the same institution did better — about 4.7% nominal, 1.8% real. And the increases split by sector: 3.9% at public institutions, 3.6% at private independent institutions, 3.0% at religiously affiliated ones.

The longer trend matters more than any single year. AAUP notes that real average salaries still have not recovered from a cumulative 7.5% decrease between fall 2019 and fall 2022. Two consecutive years of above-inflation growth have not undone three years of losses.

How professors get paid beyond base salary

Base salary is the largest piece for most faculty, but rarely the only one. The common supplements:

Grant-funded summer salary

For research faculty on nine-month contracts, external grants are the standard route to being paid across the summer, within the institutional-base-salary limits described above.

Consulting

Faculty in business, engineering, law, medicine and public policy often consult for firms, agencies or nonprofits. Most institutions permit this within a stated day limit and require disclosure.

Writing, publishing and speaking

Textbook royalties, trade books, and paid speaking supplement income, though for most academic authors the amounts are modest — scholarly monographs rarely earn meaningful royalties.

Summer and overload teaching

Teaching a summer session or an extra course is usually paid separately, at rates set by the institution’s own written policy.

Administrative stipends

Serving as department chair, program director or dean typically carries a stipend or a moved contract, sometimes converting a nine-month appointment into a twelve-month one.

Tenure, and why it is shrinking

Tenure is a job-security arrangement, not a pay grade, but it correlates strongly with the higher figures because tenured faculty are concentrated at the professor and associate ranks. NCES reports that about 57% of degree-granting institutions still operated a tenure system in 2022–23. Among faculty at those institutions, 44% had tenure, down from 49% in 2011–12 — and the rate differed by sex, 53% for men against 40% for women.

That decline is the same trend as the 44% part-time share: institutions have steadily replaced salaried tenure-track lines with per-course appointments. It is the single most important thing to understand about academic pay, and no average salary figure shows it.

Is it a growing field?

Yes, on the federal projections. BLS counted about 1.4 million postsecondary teaching jobs in 2025 and projects 7% growth from 2025 to 2035 — faster than the average across all occupations — adding roughly 98,200 positions, with about 103,300 openings a year once retirements and exits are counted. What those projections do not say is how many of the openings will be salaried full-time lines rather than per-course work.

Frequently asked questions

How much do college professors make on average?

Full-time US college faculty averaged $97,700 on a nine-month contract in 2022–23, according to NCES. The BLS median for postsecondary teachers was $85,330 as of May 2025. The average is higher because it excludes part-time faculty and is pulled up by top earners.

What is the highest-paid type of professor?

Law professors, at a median of $128,500 as of May 2025, followed by economics ($123,920) and engineering ($109,270). Pay tracks what a qualified person could earn outside academia.

Do professors get paid over the summer?

Not under a standard nine-month contract. Many faculty spread the same nine-month salary across twelve months, and research faculty often cover summer months from grant funding, subject to the institutional-base-salary limits in 2 CFR 200.430(h).

How often do professors get paid?

Monthly at most institutions. Faculty on nine-month appointments usually choose between nine payments and twelve smaller ones covering the same total.

How much do adjunct professors make per class?

Average pay per course section ranged from $3,226 to $6,481 in 2023–24, depending on institution type, per the AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey. Fewer than 35% of institutions contributed to retirement plans for part-time faculty.

Do professors make more than teachers?

On average yes, but the comparison only holds for full-time faculty. A part-time college instructor teaching six sections a year at typical rates may earn well under a starting public-school teacher’s salary, with no benefits.

Does a PhD increase a professor’s salary?

Indirectly. A doctorate is normally required for tenure-track appointment, and rank is what drives pay: assistant professors averaged $82,500 and full professors $135,300 in 2022–23.

Sources

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook, Postsecondary Teachers (May 2025 wage data)
• National Center for Education Statistics — Characteristics of Postsecondary Faculty (2022–23)
• AAUP — Preliminary 2024–25 Faculty Compensation Survey Results
• AAUP Data — Part-Time Faculty Pay
• NEA — Eight Charts That Tell You Everything About Faculty Pay
• 2 CFR 200.430 — Compensation, personal services
• IRS — Instructions for Schedule J (Form 990)