How Much Do You Earn, Professor Palmer?

I am not telling. But here are some median professor salaries, by discipline, courtesy of Newmark's Door.



The columns probably won't line up. They are:



Discipline . . . Full prof . . . Assoc Prof . . . Asst Prof . . . New Asst Prof . . . Instructor



Biological and Biomedical Sciences . . .86,612 $62,677 $52,510 $52,275 $41,103

Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services $98,384 $82,347 $75,835 $81,842 $51,939

Communication, Journalism and Related Programs $77,307 $59,549 $50,027 $48,637 $41,230



...



English Language and Literature/Letters $74,040 $57,598 $47,724 $47,357 $37,573

English Language and Literature/Letters: General $73,693 $56,868 $47,405 $47,006 $37,612

Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences $78,255 $61,948 $51,238 $50,869 $40,320



...



Social Sciences $81,501 $63,008 $52,826 $52,619 $42,019

Social Sciences: Political Science & Government $79,648 $61,247 $50,207 $50,207 $41,591

Social Sciences: Sociology $78,061 $59,919 $49,935 $49,142 $39,817

Theology and Religious Vocations $66,706 $55,518 $47,310 $45,665 $39,732





The universities do a good job of extracting rent from those who have low opportunity costs (i.e. are not, on average, much good for anything else?). No wonder others are jealous of the salaries earned in law, biz, and economics.



Phil Miller has his usual insightful comments about opportunity costs and professors' salaries here.



Scoop suggests contrasting economists' salaries with the salaries of those who declare a double major in theology and the arts.



Does anyone know why newly hired assistant profs in many fields are paid more than "assistant professors"? Surely that type of salary inversion cannot be good for morale or for retention of good faculty members.