The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has released the latest addition of their Faculty Compensation Survey, the largest independent source of data on full-time and part-time faculty salaries and fringe benefits.
The survey includes data from the 2024-2025 academic year regarding gender differences in faculty compensation at public, private, and religiously-affiliated institutions, as well as breakdowns on gender gaps in compensation at doctoral and master’s degree-granting universities, undergraduate colleges, and community colleges.
Across all institutional types and professorial ranks, the overall average salaries for men and women faculty members in the United States during the 2024-2025 academic year were $127,125 and $105,751, respectively.
Among different institutional categories, doctoral-granting universities had the largest gender gap in faculty compensation, with women averaging $114,684 per year, compared to an average income of $140,401 for their male colleagues. At institutions whose highest degree offered is at the master’s level, the gender gap in faculty income is smaller, with men’s and women’s salaries averaging $98,900 and $90,903, respectively.
A similar gender gap was found at bachelor’s degree-granting colleges, with average faculty salaries of $98,106 and $91,229 for men and women, respectively.
However, a gender gap favoring women was found at community colleges that have academic faculty ranks. Women faculty members at these institutions have an average salary of $89,378, compared to $86,816 for their male counterparts. At community colleges without faculty ranks, men earn on average, about $6,000 more per year than their women peers.
The largest gender gaps in faculty compensation are among full professors at doctoral-granting institutions. In this subset of faculty members, men earn an average of $21,000 more per year than their women peers. At private doctoral-granting universities, male full professors earn, on average, some $28,000 more than their women colleagues. At public and religiously-affiliated doctoral-granting universities, men who are full professors earn about $18,000 and $20,000 more than women full professors, respectively.
Outside of a handful of faculty ranks at community colleges, the only subsets included in the survey in which women faculty earn more than their male colleagues are among unranked faculty positions at private, master’s degree-granting institutions; lecturers at religiously-affiliated colleges and universities, master’s degree-granting institutions; and lecturers and unranked faculty at both bachelor’s degree-granting private and religiously-affiliated educational institutions.