Starting salaries rise

Tuition rates are increasing more than double the rate of inflation, and needed classes are getting cut.

And every year The University of Memphis hires new faculty members, while the price for doing so goes up.

It's called "salary inversion," or "salary compression," meaning new hires are paid considerably more than their predecessors, and it affects nearly every department on campus, according to an analysis of U of M faculty salaries.

"It's nothing new," said Kenneth Lambert, director of accountancy, one of the departments on campus in which salary inversion is most profound. "It's the price you have to pay to get new Ph.D.'s to be faculty members."

This year, the department had the extremely difficult job of trying to hire multiple new faculty members, Lambert said. The salaries offered were oftentimes not enough to tempt those approached.

The starting nine-month salary for a new hire in Accountancy at a university similar to The U of M can range from $130,000 to $145,000, Lambert said. Right now, the average nine-month salary at U of M for full-time accountancy faculty is just over $91,500, slightly less than the average salary across the South in the field of business management and administration. The average for a full professor in accountancy at The U of M is $109,821. The top salary goes to an assistant professor who earns $128,030.

The data analyzed for this article includes all full-time faculty members currently employed at The U of M, excepting those who earn extra money due to administrative duties. All numbers are for nine-month salaries.

Across the country, faculty salaries at four-year universities similar to The U of M have risen 44 percent in the last 10 years, according to data from the Southern Region Education Board. Salaries in Tennessee have risen 38 percent.

"Especially in accountancy, we are going through a period in which there are so few Ph.D.s out there that every year when a new Ph.D. is hired, they're making more," said Allison Collins, an accountancy instructor who makes more than some of her colleagues who are associate professors. "It's a competition with the real world."

In order to stay competitive and attract quality professors, universities have to raise starting salaries in line with the market.

"First, it's market value," said Ralph Faudree, University provost. "The market has a time element which escalates salaries."

For faculty members who have been at The University, however, that can mean that situations can arise, such as one in the economics department, in which a tenure-track assistant professor hired in 2004 can be making about 16 percent more than tenured professors who have been at The University for almost 30 years. A faculty member who is tenure-track is working toward tenure but has not yet reached that level.

According to both Faudree and Lambert, administration attempts to address salary equity issues but, with budgets always stretched, the money to achieve that goal just isn't there.

"Dr. Faudree is good about (giving money for raises) if someone is performing exceptionally," Lambert said. "But we never have enough money."

In the end, the people held back are the older professors who are established both at The University and in the Memphis community, he said. Younger professors are more apt to change universities to improve their financial situation.

"Rarely do they keep everyone up-to-date," Lambert said. "If I could bring everyone to at least (current) starting salary, I think that would make a lot of people happy.

"But, there are a lot of very accomplished people - not only should they be making as much, they should be making more."

For Carol O. Eady, a tenured health and sport sciences professor here for 18 years, the salary disparities are understandable, if disliked. Associate professors, one tenure-track and one tenured, earn two of the top three salaries in the department.

"Do I like it? No," she said. "Would it be better to increase everyone's salary if one person gets paid more? Yes."

But, she said, the higher starting salaries will help The University in the end by attracting high quality faculty who then draw more students.

"And I think as any money has become available, they've been using that" for raises, she said. "That should be the focus - on bringing up faculty salaries to be equitable."

J. Bartholomew, chair of Earth Sciences, said University administrators have given all faculty members a mandate for more research.

"As a result, you get good raises when you do research," he said.

At the same time, there are still administrative duties that must be performed, Bartholomew said, and some faculty members concentrate their efforts on those with the full knowledge that they won't get the high-dollar raises.

Faudree said he and other administrators are not happy with Memphis salaries compared with other like institutions. For the 2004-05 academic year, The U of M's average faculty salary was nine percent lower than that of its peer institutions, according to SREB data. Tennessee ranks ninth out of 11 states in the South who have institutions in U of M's peer group.

"Our salaries need to be improved," Faudree said. "Everyone worries about 'brain drain.' If you hire really outstanding faculty, other people want them, too."

"Brain drain" refers to the movement of highly qualified faculty to institutions at which they will be paid more and have more benefits, such as better research facilities.

On the other hand, since improving faculty salaries became a priority for U of M administration, the salary increases in the past five years have ranked near the top, Faudree said.

One way The University increases faculty paychecks is with summer courses. Faculty members who teach during the summer receive 1/32, or 3.125 percent, of their prior academic year's salary per credit hour.

In other words, a faculty member who makes $65,675.21, the average nine-month salary this year, would receive $2,052.35 per credit hour taught - around $6,160 for one three-hour course. Faculty members who make the top salaries at The University could almost triple that amount.

For Faudree, the expense is worth it.

"Hopefully, the quality that you provide is reflected in your salary and why shouldn't it be reflected in summer?" he said.

While the money for teaching summer courses is good, faculty members who choose to do research under a grant have the potential to earn much more. According to Faudree, the number of senior faculty who are teaching in the summer is decreasing as more faculty concentrate on research.

Although the paycheck for teaching one class can seem astronomical, especially in the higher-paid departments, Lambert said that traditionally the summer program has not only met costs but made money.

However, with dramatic budget cuts in the past three years cutting summer course offerings, he said, "A lot of faculty members have basically had a salary cut."

He and other department heads try to give all faculty members who want to teach during the summer the opportunity, but whereas in the 1980s faculty could teach up to three classes a summer, now most teach one.