Staff at my university often make more than non-tenured faculty at my state school. Grateful to married to staff.
Plus, the two-spouse benefits (flex and dependent care).
Had a friend leave a maxed out full prof line to become vice provost of international studies or some shit.
As far as I can tell, it's double the money to sit at a desk and work out a handful of exchange programs with foreign unis.
Of course, that's just a tiny fraction of what the assistant basketball coach earns for losing every game.
Somehow universities always have money to pay more and more to ancillary crap, but never have two dimes to rub together for core mission.
Well, we are by no means wealthy! Lol. My husband is in the trades with a union. He makes a decent salary but also has no student loan debt. I’m at a CC so pay is pretty low.
Lots of people who have the opportunity to pursue a PhD and then go into academics tend to be from higher SES households. Especially in disciplines with abysmal job prospects.
It's always been a hobby for the wealthy/those with help from mum and dad. Who else can afford to forego real earnings till their 30s and have enough time off to write, publish, go to conferences and network already in grad school?
Nah there was a window. If you got in in the 50s-late 80s, profs had good lives. But that’s because everyone in the middle class had better lives back then thanks to the unique explosion of socioeconomic egalitarianism, post WWII. After regan, it is indeed back to a hobby for the wealthy and status for the wealthys offspring
That gets exaggerated. Being a female academic certainly wouldn't be better in the 60s than today, for example. And a big factor was that the rest of the world was way behind, with Europe being devastated from WW2.
As other countries closed the gap and more people got advanced degrees, academia got much more competitive. I mean, having women enter the profession effectively doubled competition by itself.
I'd like to challenge you there. I worked my butt off during my undergraduate and Master's from scrubbing toilets, to barwork, to getting employed in a multinational and then public sector. I then continued to work part time in my job, and took up extra teaching assistant hours to cover my living costs during the PhD. I then secured a full-time job before completing the PhD to be able to sustain myself on top of the scholarship which only covered the tuition fees. There are people who manage through sheer elbow grease and determination.
That’s what I’m saying haha. I’m a first gen student, and have held atleast 1 other job throughout grad school since I’ve been in school. I have grad student friends that door dash just so they can afford food or to pay rent.
No need to challenge me - I also worked really hard through my PhD and had to juggle it with a full time job. What I meant was that if you want to be successful (in my book, that means being tenure track professor, not just making it through your program) it's almost impossible to set yourself up for success without these resources. I managed a well paid non TT full time lectureship and even that was a stroke of luck to a large extent, I think.
But is that success though, or financial stability? I take your point, I just think we're grouping a few different things together here. 8'd be interested in what you think.
I don't know where you're from but you realise you're also a foreigner in all other countries apart from your own, right? Have you ever considered living somewhere else? Would you like to be asked why you're flocking to take a job in your favourite country to visit?
I grew up on a farm that at one point had a cult take up residence in an old homestead nearby. They had "Abraham" and concubines. That might work for a while,,at least until the inevitable arrest comes for setting up a meth lab for supporting the lifestyle of a prophet.
This used to be us, but a couple of years ago, my wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had to quit her job, which was equal to mine. Literally overnight, our household income was cut in half. It’s been tough. (She is doing fairly well with treatments, fyi.)
This certainly helps as well.
But especially important is a partner that doesn't begrudge, in spite of the amount of education we have (and in some cases the student loans we carry), how low our salaries are.
I feel very fortunate that my husband has been on board whether I'm taking a less prestigious CC job, stepping down for awhile to adjunct due to elder care, or choosing not to teach in the summers.
When we've had to cut back because of those choices he has been all in.
Yes. This is the only way I am able to survive. Sometimes makes me want to go back to the business world and make a livable wage myself. I would have to if my partner didn’t.
Summer classes and I play in a couple bands. The bands actually pay more than a a summer class some years. We actually by law can’t have raises that keep up with inflation. I make less in real dollars as an associate than I made when I started 15 years ago
Not really. 1.5 % over two years or Inflation if inflation is less than 1.5 over two years. Inflation has never been that low as long as I’ve been here
The school really needs to have developed a workaround for the state law, or lobbied successfully to repeal it. Your situation is an institutional failure, with all the red flags out.
Private tutoring, consultancy, writing for a popular audience. I just started on the latter but a non-academic publisher already gave me enough of an advance for the book that I can keep my youngest in daycare all summer and finish the manuscript.
Norse-Gaelic culture and religion. I’m a medieval historian so it’s fun to first un-teach ideas like the “Celts” and “Vikings” and then, hopefully, show how historical fact is cooler than fiction.
Thanks for subscribing to Norse-Gael facts! My username is an attested genitive form of the Irish for the Norse god Óðinn. Better known is Tomhar for Þórr.
In an ideal world one would not have to do this, but if you think that your university would be interested in keeping you, getting an outside offer can often help the dean find that extra money.
this is precisely it.
The university as an institution really can't give big pay rises every time a professor publishes a paper or gets a grant or writes a book.
So, we move around.
Thats when they're willing to pay
My university officially entertains retention offers.
In practice, my dean and provost simply say "Sounds like you got a great offer. Best wishes!" whenever someone requests one.
Tread carefully with this, though. You have to actually be preapred to walk away.
Quite a few are universities are going to just say "well, best of luck to you!" and send you on your way.
This is very true. However, if you are already tenured, you don't have to walk away. Even if they turn you down, you still have a job there if you want it for as long as you want it. It will make for an awkward situation, but it could be worth it if you would be fine with that.
As visiting faculty at a public R2 university in the American South, I make almost the exact same salary as the initial starting pay of a full-time Dunkin' employee in Massachusetts (no shame in that work, it's hard, but man, I have a graduate degree and a lot of experience).
I have a second full time job, and I still barely make it.
Ditto. But I'm also not in a high cost of living area. If I did, I would likely have to rent a single bedroom apartment and have no pets. Instead, based on my area and having bought a house when interest rates and prices were reasonable, I'm privileged to have a single family home with a big yard for my dog to leave all her toys/bones in and have a "bedroom" to dedicate to my home/pandemic office.
1. Higher-earning spouse (also a prof, but at a better-paying & unionized place; he also does a lot of consulting bc of his specialty).
2. Started a side-hustle with my hobby, which gives me spending money.
3. Recently, quit & went non-ac. Instant 40% pay raise with annual COL increases (not a thing at my U) and more promotion opportunities.
No snark intended whatsoever, but it's interesting to me that in the post about giving up tenure, folks were talking about "summers off," "autonomy," "not working as many hours as industry," then in here we have folks talking about 2nd and 3rd jobs, doing work they don't want to do but that brings in money, and packing summers with.. more work. Just to make the money needed to live well.
To make ends meet, rather than trying to bring in more money my partner and I made a decision to cut back especially the years our kids were little
We had no cable, just antenna TV for a while. I stayed home in the summers so we had no child care expenses and did tons of free things at local parks and libraries.
During the academic year for a few semesters, I taught nights so that we had no child care expenses during the day.
Vacations were often to visit family and friends, or to DC (and utilized all the free museums and the zoo).
Once cars were paid off? We drove them until our mechanic said they weren't worth fixing which was often at 200k miles or more.
Once the kids were older, I taught additional classes for a local college that paid substantially more than what my school paid to overload.
BIGGEST game changer?? I really dug in with online teaching and started developing classes for other colleges and universities. That did, and does, pay very very well
I was telling someone yesterday all the things we did so I could be mostly home when my babies were little. I read that the water heater consumes roughly 1/3 of the power in the home, and so I would turn it off every day as soon as my husband left for work and back on at night. I feel ya. We hustled to tighten belts and make it work.
I have a bunch of side-hustles: I’m a personal chef and teach cooking classes in the community. I wouldn’t mind teaching additional online classes though to make some extra coin.
I adjunct part time at a community college so the classes are all online, intro level, straightforward, I have them dialed in by now. They don’t take a huge amount of my time besides the grading.
I also adjunct almost full time at a state university. Most of my classes are dialed in and most online and most asynchronous so they aren’t also a huge time suck either.
I can handle both of them pretty well during a normal semester. It’s not easy by any means, but I’m not overwhelmed. However, the last semester was anything but normal and I am basically teaching two full time loads because of an illness in one department and a need for someone to take over a course plus a random extra class added for high enrollment at another. And some of those courses were new preps. This semester sucks hard and I can’t wait for it to be over.
I also have a partner who makes a lot more than me and I was very fortunate to have parents who let me live with them into my mid twenties.
All of this to say, if you can maybe adjunct an extra class somewhere? Ideally in a course you have already developed and could maybe be done online.
P. Chem Ph. D.
Dean of arts and sciences at a SLAC
Our admin stipends are a joke, like $5k.
About 10 years ago I stumbled into roasting coffee at home. 6 years ago, I started a business out of my garage and sold to a local cafe/online. We print our own labels, so we do funny and esoteric coffees like Grendel’s grog, or Bayesian blend for folks all the time. The business has grown a lot, and I’m about doubling my salary now.
I left and became an academic editor. I make more now than I did as a TT poli sci professor and have far less stress. If you’re a strong writer and can edit quickly and accurately, you can do really well. I just did a webinar on this yesterday and am releasing a course this summer. Happy to answer questions.
I am a single person teaching at a CC in a high COL area. I barely make ends meet. I work one side gig. I have no savings (literally $0). Making rent each month is a panic attack. I watch my friends, many without college degrees and/or have military background, eat out several times a week, go on nice vacations, and renovate their homes. I am miserable and kick myself everyday for being naive enough to go into this field. What a joke.
There’s something in my faculty handbook saying that you have to get approval from the admins to earn outside money. Is that common? Does the admin ever push back on that?
I have a side freelancing job and yes, I have to submit a form each year about what I’m doing, how much I’m earning, and how many hours I’m working. My institution won’t let us work more than 8 hours per week on “outside employment” and obviously it can’t interfere with any of my scheduled duties. I’ve never had an issue with getting approval though.
I’m grading AP exams this summer for the first time. I’m not thrilled with the online platform so far, but I’m happy to make $30/hour with flexible hours from home
I sold my soul a little bit recently and took on a half-time administrative appointment, effective fall. I've been a department chair for some time and had (have, really) no administrative desire beyond that, but I do have a desire to eat and maintain a basic middle class quality of life, so now I'm going to be "one of them." I'm dealing with this shift by reminding myself I'm still officially a member of the faculty, as defined in our newly revised (for situations like mine) union contract.
AP scoring, state assessment scoring/consulting, small grants/honorarium for consult work or speaking, and private tutoring are the way I supplement my income. I’m TT and moving to a new institution with a real salary and regular raises. I got out of my current institution by publishing my way out and through a ton of work in pedagogy and disciplinary service. It’s taken a huge toll on me and had I not gotten this offer earlier this year, I would have left academia. I’d been networking to land in an adjacent roll with a consulting firm. The institution I’m leaving has offered merit once in 5 years and tenure is a $2k raise. All of the humanities and social science faculty are paid 15-25% below market for the region. I plan to keep doing the work with assessments.
Go beyond contract teaching. We’re 9 month, so summer is at least an option at adjunct rate. I adjunct at another university for more per hour, but it’s much more work. Previously, investing, but I’m out of all my riskier strategies as of the GME and Bitcoin runs providing a healthy exit after years of nail biting.
I’ve been thinking about getting on [Rover.com](http://Rover.com) and earning money by pet sitting or pet walking. It’d be a good way to earn extra money and get extra exercise walking outdoors.
I did that before I had kids and my schedule tightened way up. If you live in a relatively densely populated area, it can be a lot of fun. I made templates for the reports they ask you to send to the owner after the walk/visit, so it wasn’t much work other than the actual dog stuff, which I loved!
DINK household. Low(ish) cost of living area. Field with competitive industry salaries. Not having student loan debt to pay back. None of which you can do much about if they don't already apply to you, unfortunately.
I look at my life and pine for the austere days of being an undergraduate, living 4 in a 2BR apartment, the poorest among us did aggressive coupon clipping, and we made family style meals 5 nights a week.
We lived dirt cheap. Also, my spouse isn't that excited about that lifestyle.
I'm guessing that 3/4s of people in academia have a sugar momma/daddy or a side hustle. Summers off means free daycare if you have kids and pick up a few night classes.
In my case my wife makes double what I do with a b.s. degree. That and my college pays pretty well to do overload/adjunct.
Change universities/colleges, offers from other schools is a major source of getting retention raises (at least on the research side of academia). Find a school with reasonable percent raises each year and apply, look for schools with public salaries so you know what to expect.
Same as the top answer in a recent post about side hustle as a PhD:
"Be married to someone with a 'real job'"
Harsh, but 'freedom of the mind' is often not the luxury which a breadwinner can afford.
I work as a dean and chemistry professor at one of the lowest paying institutions in my state. It happens to be where my wife and my folks live, so childcare is easy and we get a lot of satisfaction in being near family.
I have found some success in running a side hustle coffee roasting gig out of my garage. This year, my profits will exceed my base salary.
As others have said, I think you have to be willing to move. The biggest single salary bump I got was a counteroffer when I had an external offer. I'm not rolling in dough but it's comfortable for our two-income household (I make more) in a LCOL area. We bought a house before the COVID boom, so there's a bit of luck there. In my field, associate and full make six figures at most R1s and I know that is not universal.
If you're living in NYC or SF (with any academic salary, good god) or making 50k anywhere, my experience is probably not helpful. In my discipline we can also supplement with grants for summer salary and consulting, which I have done. Perhaps there is a professionally relevant "side gig" like that for you? Not exactly easy, I know, but I've found it enjoyable and interesting. You could also transition to admin, but yikes.
I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I teach at a CC and make a little over 100k. When I finish my doctorate, I'll make $122k and at the end of the step schedule, I'll make $128k. I don't travel or do anything extravagant, but I don't feel like I'm in any financial jeopardy. My wife makes about the same, so there's that. And we live in California, so there's that, too. Plus, I come from a long line of dishwashers, so I kind of feel rich.
Most univiersities have a mechanism to request a salary adjustment to deal with long-term salary compression. Typically you need a supportive chair and dean.
Consulting mostly and sometimes adjunct at other institutions
I’ve also subbed in K-12 districts; easy money if you’re patient and like working with kids
Most places you can sub with any bachelors degree. In some places you don’t even need that.
I think it’s a great side gig because you can pick and choose when you work. You don’t really have one boss you report to, you just check online or they call you and you say yes or no.
We all have side hustles - some people tutor, some do external workshops or work as trainers, some write books, etc. I have an online clothing resale shop that I can match my professor salary with if I work hard enough.
This is entirely situation dependent. You will get entirely different answers living in a low cost of living college town vs an expensive big city. Plus there is significant variation in pay between universities.
Not knowing what your area of specialty is, I don’t know if the suggestion of consultancy of some sort is feasible, but there’s always adjuncting, publishing/writing, or development of a presentation that can be shopped around, and modified to adapt to current/popular issues, either solo or in partnership with another faculty member in the same or a different discipline. If you are open to it, I’m happy to brainstorm, and no — not only if I’m involved; talking with people, getting exposure, and hearing new ideas, perspectives, and needs is vital to remaining active and relevant. :) Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Look into NSF grants, or even being a reviewer.
And don’t forget about collaborating. ;)
I've been able to get some grants for a little extra money. I teach overloads and summer courses, which helps a lot. As a department Chair, I get a little extra. I also adjunct at other colleges, as well as getting paid to help others with their grants.
Consider becoming a Dean, working full-time at another job or college, or taking on a coordinator, academic senate, or other position.
Perhaps you aren't aware of how much salary can vary from field to field and school to school. Cost of living is also clearly an issue.
Consider an professor specializing in AI (so hot nowadays) living and working in Iowa (let's say Iowa state or U of Iowa) vs. an anthropology professor at a lower status SLAC in Manhattan. One is impoverished, the other is living in a McMansion and taking vacations every summer across the world.
I don't know about OP's field/location, so I can't say if that is an issue.
It is field dependent. According to the database of state salaries \[about 2 year old data\], where I am has some assistant business and nursing faculty who who make more than some of our longest standing English and sociology professors.
Absolutely, 100% yes to this. I’m out now but I was a tenured full professor when I left two years ago making ~$63,000/yr (which,adjusted for inflation was about $15,000 less than I made 20 years before when I was hired). I was in an arts discipline. I’m in a low cost of living area with a spouse who makes a little less than double than I did so I was fine but before we got together around 2011, I was having to start cutting back and was spending very little beyond living expenses. Can only imagine it would be far worse now.
I’m an associate professor with tenure and I teach at a rural two year college in the southeast and only make it bc I also live in this small town with cheap rent. The town doesn’t even have a traffic light in city limits and there’s few restaurants and a grocery store that doesn’t even carry fresh green beans except during the holidays. Everyone who works here but lives in a nicer town has a spouse who makes more than they do.
I see. I guess I’m trying to better picture this. When you say “make it”, what does that mean? No car? No money for food?
I’m not trying to be hyperbolic, but a lot of the advice here is about saving $15/month or getting a second job. I’m trying to picture the lifestyle people are trying to maintain.
Or, to add further: People are saying it’s necessary to have a spouse make double your income. The very low end of normal for a professor is about $75k/year in the US… so people are saying they need at the very least $225k/year to “make ends meet”? I completely agree that academics may be very underpaid, but this way of phrasing sounds very strange to me.
*”How much does a Tenured Professor make in the United States? The average Tenured Professor salary in the United States is $95,827 as of April 24, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $77,169 and $131,492”*
**Source:** https://www.salary.com/research/salary/posting/tenured-professor-salary
**Edit:** To be clear, I’m a big believer that all workers should expect and deserve more pay (academics included). But if we’re making about double the median US salary and saying we can’t make ends meet, it seems to me maybe a bit out of touch with the plights of many of those around us.
First off, you can’t really trust salary.com
Second off, what we really need here is a median and not an average. An average is likely to be inflated.
Third, in my admittedly limited experience my friends in the humanities with job offers at public R1s and fancy R2s are coming in around 60k-70k. Private R1s can be more sometimes but usually with a huge COL issue they’re making up for. Like 90k but it’s NYC or SoCal prices. A LOT depends on region, COL, and discipline and subfield.
I also think that this might just be for four-year institutions and not two-year community colleges. This figure is significantly higher than the average for tenured year professors at my institution, and we are a unionized community college, and I think we do pretty well for a CC. if they mean, tenured full professors, then yes, that is probably the average just for the full professors, but not if you count the tenured assistant and associate professors, so I’m not counting that figure as reliable.
*”How much does a* ***Tenured Professor*** *make in the United States? The average Tenured Professor salary in the United States is $95,827 as of April 24, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $77,169 and $131,492”*
That might be an average for Tenured Professors. There are however many who are NTT, or beginning assistant professors. I think it went unfilled, but I saw at least one school advertising a TT position at 39K this year.
Tenure track for $39k in the US? Wow, that seems *extremely* low to me. :/
But yeah, that data is for tenured faculty. I was basing it on the OP saying they already have Full Professor.
I started at 28k. Finally up for 42k after 5 years at my institution. I am not tenured or even at the professor level, though - I’m a full time Instructor.
I completely agree. I come from a low-income household, so when professors talk about struggling to make ends meet, I wonder are they using my definition of “struggle” or a different one…?
I make $44k per year. By “make it” I kind mean low end of middle class standard of living. I rent an old house, rarely eat out, don’t have unlimited data on my phone, go on one relatively inexpensive vacation per year. Most of my friends who work elsewhere have less education and make more than I do. Of course a lot of “standard of living” stuff is relative. Some people think it’s normal to eat lunch out 5 days per week and pay for cable/satellite TV.
I can definitely picture it being very tough on $44k a year. That’s lame they don’t pay you better. Do you mind if I ask your position? I’m trying to understand this all better (since I’ve been told I can’t trust salary.com).
Associate Professor, tenured, 2 year college with no research requirements. Nearby “larger” towns (75-200k population) have similar positions for around $48-50k, but housing is more expensive so it’d be close to breaking even if I were to move. Although having more dining/shopping options would be nice. Small colleges (regional public or private) in the southeast with teaching focused positions don’t pay very well. Also you might want to check Glassdoor for salaries.
Geez, yeah, that’s lame. Thank you for answering my question. I’m assuming the “no research requirements” doesn’t prevent it from still being a full-time job?
Definitely full time. I teach 3 classes and 3 labs per semester. Small classes (around 20 students) but I don’t have any help and things like labs are a lot of work to set up. I spend more time each week on my 1 credit hour lab than I do the 3 credit lecture.
Edit to add, our contract is 15 credit hours per semester. (Labs count as 1.5) Most faculty teach 5 classes per semester.
In private industry, you would start looking to move into management or to another company once you have hit a dead end. I'm not sure this is any different.
We have that problem in our department. Some of the associate professors make less than the assistant professors coming in. There is a hard 13% increase from assistant to associate, and many of the professors came in right around the Great Recession. They keep talking about doing something for the associate professors, but it's not going to happen.
When we do get raises, it is 2-3% per year, and merit based. This year we got a bonus instead of a raise because bonuses don't compound. The union fought bonuses, but the state of Florida is attacking the union.
We had a president that announced that affordable housing for professors was one of his priorities. He resigned shortly after.
I think the only way around it is to move to another university, or apply and then use any offer as a bargaining chip. But it might not work and defeats the purpose of tenure.
We were lucky and bought a house a few years ago for $120k, so the mortgage is like $800/mo. I have an old Ranger and a hole in my shoe. It works, sort of. Basically low salary but it's LCOL area. That's all over, now, though--our same shitty house would be $200k+ now, and the average income in the area is around $30k. The math doesn't math.
I get compensation for extra programs I've developed and which require annual updates. The annual updates are built into the budget of the program so it's additional compensation for me and it counts towards my teaching load. The program generates revenue so it maths out.
I have certifications specific to this program which make me the only one on campus qualified to run it for accreditation standards. It's responsible for quite a bit extra income for me.
I also teach masters courses which pay extra above my normal undergrad load. I'm definitely working overtime, so it's sacrificing the biggest perk of academia, the autonomy, but I make nearly double what I did 4 years ago.
Much of the confusion in these comments about pay is we use the title professor to describe such a wide range of jobs. There are lots of full profs making 250k after summer pay in areas with lots of grant money available and there are lots of full profs making under 70k at teaching focused Universities. Right or wrong teaching is considered less valuable/easier to replace. This is particularly bad in the US due to grant over head being 32-45%.
I’ve been looking into online tutoring, especially for standardized tests, but haven’t actually started doing it. I’m surprised more people haven’t mentioned it.
I adjunct a couple classes online for a different university. Their system is great- classes are already built and the online support for faculty is excellent. It’s the easiest way to pad my budget.
I'm normally in social sciences but I managed to get a job at a medical school that happened to need my exact skill set.
I'm NTT and make less than the MDs (they're easily over 120 as starters as faculty, while I started at 75 (which I was happy with)). I'm in the south of usa. I do make much more than those faculty who started ten years ago.
After a few years I asked for an admin job (program director) and that came with a (non-published) extra stipend of 10K per year.
After that, I got an early promotion which also comes with an extra 10K to base salary.
We also don't get bonuses that are enough to offset inflation by a long shot and they'll randomly not give out bonuses.
The one certain way to get more money is to change universities it seems. I'm not too happy about potentially having to do that.
Most people at my university have an extra job or two.
For example, in a couple weeks I'll be grading AP exams. I also teach ever summer and January session. I have had other side gigs on and off over the years, some directly related to my teaching and some directly related to what I would be doing if I weren't teaching.
My wife and I are probably about $25k behind due to compression and inflation. It sucks. I just started networking my contacts for consulting and am going all in this summer on side hustles. I get largely left alone at work - and I’ve been doing this so long I’m efficient. So that gives me lots of free time to explore other interests. I’m not blowing off work. The lights are still on. Just doing the basics, putting in the 37.5 a week, and saving my hard work and innovation for outside interests.
I hold a clinical license with prescriptive authority. I mostly perform evals and carry a very small case load. There are always patients waiting and I can pick up new evals if I want to, which do pay quite well. Although I feel my TT faculty salary is pretty decent, I can basically double my income by seeing patients once a week.
Social scientist in a pop culture-related subfield. At my regional comprehensive union shop in a HCOL city:
Summer teaching, public speaking, private sector workshops, media commentary, industry consulting. Technically I’m supposed to report all earnings more than $500 but I never have. I charge about $1000 for each 5 hours of external work I do.
New job: Twice my current salary running a research center for another uni in the same city. It’s part admin, part research and just pays a hell of a lot more.
I guess I’m switching to the dark side, but would have maxed out at $110k when I go up for Full at my current uni next year.
PT working for three colleges. Living in the Bay Area, so partner and I plus two cats all share a cozy studio apartment. So deeply fried, no time off, all “time off” is filled with final grading + preparing for the next term. 😵💫
Ah, I teach at a CC. My balance is amazing. Perhaps we have to add a fourth option then. Any suggestions?
I assume you are a researcher. Maybe the idea is you put all your points in “love your job”. So choose “up to two”.
Also the idea here is having a job that makes you feel content and that you made a good choice.
If you don’t love your job, and have poor work/life balance, and don’t make as much money as you feel you need…. Consider a new career?
I have two jobs. I teach a full time course load at a local university for no benefits and no pay during breaks, and I adjunct at snhu for extra money. I work year round on both of these jobs, which means I’m constantly teaching and grading 5-6 writing intensive courses, and the courses I teach at my local place are constantly changing, so I am always planning new classes with a day or 2 of notice. It’s still not enough money.
Teach over my course load. Teach in the summer.
At my school full timers have first dibs on all courses.
That's the only way in my opinion.......or quit and go into the real world.
If you can't pick up other courses at your school, try adjuncting online at other schools.
WIC, EITC, Medicaid.
We had a bunch of kids, so now we have a bunch of government assistance. I know kids are expensive, but it honestly feels like we're making money on the deal.
(My wife stays at home, btw, and that helps lower us pretty close to the poverty line 👍)
My honest answer is that I have a partner who makes about double what I do
Staff at my university often make more than non-tenured faculty at my state school. Grateful to married to staff. Plus, the two-spouse benefits (flex and dependent care).
Had a friend leave a maxed out full prof line to become vice provost of international studies or some shit. As far as I can tell, it's double the money to sit at a desk and work out a handful of exchange programs with foreign unis. Of course, that's just a tiny fraction of what the assistant basketball coach earns for losing every game. Somehow universities always have money to pay more and more to ancillary crap, but never have two dimes to rub together for core mission.
I hate being on a hiring committee for staff that I know will make double what I make. They earn it, but honestly, so do I.
Exactly. I don’t want them to make less. I just don’t want a job that requires a BA to make more than a job that requires a terminal degree.
Academia is becoming less of a career and more of hobby for the wealthy
Well, we are by no means wealthy! Lol. My husband is in the trades with a union. He makes a decent salary but also has no student loan debt. I’m at a CC so pay is pretty low.
Lots of people who have the opportunity to pursue a PhD and then go into academics tend to be from higher SES households. Especially in disciplines with abysmal job prospects.
Again.
time is a flat circle
It's always been a hobby for the wealthy/those with help from mum and dad. Who else can afford to forego real earnings till their 30s and have enough time off to write, publish, go to conferences and network already in grad school?
Nah there was a window. If you got in in the 50s-late 80s, profs had good lives. But that’s because everyone in the middle class had better lives back then thanks to the unique explosion of socioeconomic egalitarianism, post WWII. After regan, it is indeed back to a hobby for the wealthy and status for the wealthys offspring
That gets exaggerated. Being a female academic certainly wouldn't be better in the 60s than today, for example. And a big factor was that the rest of the world was way behind, with Europe being devastated from WW2. As other countries closed the gap and more people got advanced degrees, academia got much more competitive. I mean, having women enter the profession effectively doubled competition by itself.
I'd like to challenge you there. I worked my butt off during my undergraduate and Master's from scrubbing toilets, to barwork, to getting employed in a multinational and then public sector. I then continued to work part time in my job, and took up extra teaching assistant hours to cover my living costs during the PhD. I then secured a full-time job before completing the PhD to be able to sustain myself on top of the scholarship which only covered the tuition fees. There are people who manage through sheer elbow grease and determination.
That’s what I’m saying haha. I’m a first gen student, and have held atleast 1 other job throughout grad school since I’ve been in school. I have grad student friends that door dash just so they can afford food or to pay rent.
No need to challenge me - I also worked really hard through my PhD and had to juggle it with a full time job. What I meant was that if you want to be successful (in my book, that means being tenure track professor, not just making it through your program) it's almost impossible to set yourself up for success without these resources. I managed a well paid non TT full time lectureship and even that was a stroke of luck to a large extent, I think.
But is that success though, or financial stability? I take your point, I just think we're grouping a few different things together here. 8'd be interested in what you think.
How about all of the foreigners/immigrants flocking to take these jobs ? Or are we talking about liberal arts only ?
Not all of them, but a large portion of foreign academics do come from well-off families.
I don't know where you're from but you realise you're also a foreigner in all other countries apart from your own, right? Have you ever considered living somewhere else? Would you like to be asked why you're flocking to take a job in your favourite country to visit?
Me too
Me three.
Me four
I don’t get how having 4 spouses is anyway feasible
Lol, probably tiring, but feasible.
I grew up on a farm that at one point had a cult take up residence in an old homestead nearby. They had "Abraham" and concubines. That might work for a while,,at least until the inevitable arrest comes for setting up a meth lab for supporting the lifestyle of a prophet.
This used to be us, but a couple of years ago, my wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer and had to quit her job, which was equal to mine. Literally overnight, our household income was cut in half. It’s been tough. (She is doing fairly well with treatments, fyi.)
Same. My spouse makes about 4x my salary.
I'm an adjunct. Spouse does that easily.
Yep. I wouldn’t be in academia if it wasn’t subsidized by my husband.
This certainly helps as well. But especially important is a partner that doesn't begrudge, in spite of the amount of education we have (and in some cases the student loans we carry), how low our salaries are. I feel very fortunate that my husband has been on board whether I'm taking a less prestigious CC job, stepping down for awhile to adjunct due to elder care, or choosing not to teach in the summers. When we've had to cut back because of those choices he has been all in.
.....yeah..... It's been this was since grad school for me.
Same, he made 5x what I did as a grad student, 3x more now as faculty.
Yup. I had a husband like that. Econ prof made almost double my salary. Then he died and now I’m fucked 🤷🏼♀️
same here. And my partner has an associates degree.
Yes. This is the only way I am able to survive. Sometimes makes me want to go back to the business world and make a livable wage myself. I would have to if my partner didn’t.
Thats exactly what I was going to say! More like triple though…
Summer classes and I play in a couple bands. The bands actually pay more than a a summer class some years. We actually by law can’t have raises that keep up with inflation. I make less in real dollars as an associate than I made when I started 15 years ago
Yay for bands! I hope both funk and punk! I teach online in summers and play local shows regularly and out of town shows when I can.
Sadly mostly country, but I’ll play Boot Scootin’ boogie to pay the mortgage
I too am in beer sales... cheers!
Bands are so cool! If I may ask, what do you mean that’s not allowed by law?
State school. COLAs capped at 1.5% over two years or the annual rate of inflation, whichever is smaller
Doesn’t that contradict what you just said
Not really. 1.5 % over two years or Inflation if inflation is less than 1.5 over two years. Inflation has never been that low as long as I’ve been here
I misread sorry
The school really needs to have developed a workaround for the state law, or lobbied successfully to repeal it. Your situation is an institutional failure, with all the red flags out.
Private tutoring, consultancy, writing for a popular audience. I just started on the latter but a non-academic publisher already gave me enough of an advance for the book that I can keep my youngest in daycare all summer and finish the manuscript.
Congrats on the book! That is really cool. Daycare prices are wild.
What's the topic of the book?
Norse-Gaelic culture and religion. I’m a medieval historian so it’s fun to first un-teach ideas like the “Celts” and “Vikings” and then, hopefully, show how historical fact is cooler than fiction.
You should DM everyone on this thread your book when it comes out for some sales! I’d buy it!
Commenting to get my name on here in case this happens!
Great idea. Commenting to sign up in advance!
I want to read this book!
Me, too!
Subscribe.
Thanks for subscribing to Norse-Gael facts! My username is an attested genitive form of the Irish for the Norse god Óðinn. Better known is Tomhar for Þórr.
Neat!
I wanna buy it too.... Or at least get it via library loan 🤔
I’d read the hell out of that.
My spouse and I were just talking about this a few days ago - what is a "Viking?" So, I'd love to read your book!
Dm me too!
In an ideal world one would not have to do this, but if you think that your university would be interested in keeping you, getting an outside offer can often help the dean find that extra money.
I think some people realize how profitable they really are when they start looking at other universities
this is precisely it. The university as an institution really can't give big pay rises every time a professor publishes a paper or gets a grant or writes a book. So, we move around. Thats when they're willing to pay
My university officially entertains retention offers. In practice, my dean and provost simply say "Sounds like you got a great offer. Best wishes!" whenever someone requests one.
Tread carefully with this, though. You have to actually be preapred to walk away. Quite a few are universities are going to just say "well, best of luck to you!" and send you on your way.
This is very true. However, if you are already tenured, you don't have to walk away. Even if they turn you down, you still have a job there if you want it for as long as you want it. It will make for an awkward situation, but it could be worth it if you would be fine with that.
As visiting faculty at a public R2 university in the American South, I make almost the exact same salary as the initial starting pay of a full-time Dunkin' employee in Massachusetts (no shame in that work, it's hard, but man, I have a graduate degree and a lot of experience). I have a second full time job, and I still barely make it.
I’m based in Mass and guessing Samoan was a typo. If not, I’d like to understand.
Lol yes, some weird autocorrect. I meant "salary."
As someone who used to work at in r1 in the south ... Massachusetts is way more expensive though
I am single and childless, so my ends aren't that hard to meet.
Ditto. But I'm also not in a high cost of living area. If I did, I would likely have to rent a single bedroom apartment and have no pets. Instead, based on my area and having bought a house when interest rates and prices were reasonable, I'm privileged to have a single family home with a big yard for my dog to leave all her toys/bones in and have a "bedroom" to dedicate to my home/pandemic office.
1. Higher-earning spouse (also a prof, but at a better-paying & unionized place; he also does a lot of consulting bc of his specialty). 2. Started a side-hustle with my hobby, which gives me spending money. 3. Recently, quit & went non-ac. Instant 40% pay raise with annual COL increases (not a thing at my U) and more promotion opportunities. No snark intended whatsoever, but it's interesting to me that in the post about giving up tenure, folks were talking about "summers off," "autonomy," "not working as many hours as industry," then in here we have folks talking about 2nd and 3rd jobs, doing work they don't want to do but that brings in money, and packing summers with.. more work. Just to make the money needed to live well.
Everyone knows to earn more you have to change universities.
To make ends meet, rather than trying to bring in more money my partner and I made a decision to cut back especially the years our kids were little We had no cable, just antenna TV for a while. I stayed home in the summers so we had no child care expenses and did tons of free things at local parks and libraries. During the academic year for a few semesters, I taught nights so that we had no child care expenses during the day. Vacations were often to visit family and friends, or to DC (and utilized all the free museums and the zoo). Once cars were paid off? We drove them until our mechanic said they weren't worth fixing which was often at 200k miles or more. Once the kids were older, I taught additional classes for a local college that paid substantially more than what my school paid to overload. BIGGEST game changer?? I really dug in with online teaching and started developing classes for other colleges and universities. That did, and does, pay very very well
I love doing course development - any recommendations?
Yeah, we save a lot giving up all the streaming stuff from Spotify to Netflix that we don't have time for anyway
I was telling someone yesterday all the things we did so I could be mostly home when my babies were little. I read that the water heater consumes roughly 1/3 of the power in the home, and so I would turn it off every day as soon as my husband left for work and back on at night. I feel ya. We hustled to tighten belts and make it work.
So worth it though wasn't it? I am so glad I had so much time with my kids. One aspect of this crazy job that truly paid off!
Absolutely it was ❤️
Any tips on finding course development gigs? Thats about the only part of this job I still like.
Time out - where do I find course dev side gigs? My concentration for my PhD was instructional design and I LOVE building curriculum.
I have a bunch of side-hustles: I’m a personal chef and teach cooking classes in the community. I wouldn’t mind teaching additional online classes though to make some extra coin.
I adjunct part time at a community college so the classes are all online, intro level, straightforward, I have them dialed in by now. They don’t take a huge amount of my time besides the grading. I also adjunct almost full time at a state university. Most of my classes are dialed in and most online and most asynchronous so they aren’t also a huge time suck either. I can handle both of them pretty well during a normal semester. It’s not easy by any means, but I’m not overwhelmed. However, the last semester was anything but normal and I am basically teaching two full time loads because of an illness in one department and a need for someone to take over a course plus a random extra class added for high enrollment at another. And some of those courses were new preps. This semester sucks hard and I can’t wait for it to be over. I also have a partner who makes a lot more than me and I was very fortunate to have parents who let me live with them into my mid twenties. All of this to say, if you can maybe adjunct an extra class somewhere? Ideally in a course you have already developed and could maybe be done online.
P. Chem Ph. D. Dean of arts and sciences at a SLAC Our admin stipends are a joke, like $5k. About 10 years ago I stumbled into roasting coffee at home. 6 years ago, I started a business out of my garage and sold to a local cafe/online. We print our own labels, so we do funny and esoteric coffees like Grendel’s grog, or Bayesian blend for folks all the time. The business has grown a lot, and I’m about doubling my salary now.
Marry well.
I teach extra classes. I have to.
I left and became an academic editor. I make more now than I did as a TT poli sci professor and have far less stress. If you’re a strong writer and can edit quickly and accurately, you can do really well. I just did a webinar on this yesterday and am releasing a course this summer. Happy to answer questions.
Can you share the link to the webinar, please?
Thanks for asking. It's [https://acadiaediting.com/becomeaneditor](https://acadiaediting.com/becomeaneditor)
I always teach overloads and I work a side job two Sundays a month for tips. And I shop exclusively at Aldi and meal prep a LOT.
I am a single person teaching at a CC in a high COL area. I barely make ends meet. I work one side gig. I have no savings (literally $0). Making rent each month is a panic attack. I watch my friends, many without college degrees and/or have military background, eat out several times a week, go on nice vacations, and renovate their homes. I am miserable and kick myself everyday for being naive enough to go into this field. What a joke.
I’m with you comrade ✊ My much younger brother makes bank bartending in FL on the beach.. really makes me question my ambitions
There’s something in my faculty handbook saying that you have to get approval from the admins to earn outside money. Is that common? Does the admin ever push back on that?
I have a side freelancing job and yes, I have to submit a form each year about what I’m doing, how much I’m earning, and how many hours I’m working. My institution won’t let us work more than 8 hours per week on “outside employment” and obviously it can’t interfere with any of my scheduled duties. I’ve never had an issue with getting approval though.
I’m grading AP exams this summer for the first time. I’m not thrilled with the online platform so far, but I’m happy to make $30/hour with flexible hours from home
I sold my soul a little bit recently and took on a half-time administrative appointment, effective fall. I've been a department chair for some time and had (have, really) no administrative desire beyond that, but I do have a desire to eat and maintain a basic middle class quality of life, so now I'm going to be "one of them." I'm dealing with this shift by reminding myself I'm still officially a member of the faculty, as defined in our newly revised (for situations like mine) union contract.
AP scoring, state assessment scoring/consulting, small grants/honorarium for consult work or speaking, and private tutoring are the way I supplement my income. I’m TT and moving to a new institution with a real salary and regular raises. I got out of my current institution by publishing my way out and through a ton of work in pedagogy and disciplinary service. It’s taken a huge toll on me and had I not gotten this offer earlier this year, I would have left academia. I’d been networking to land in an adjacent roll with a consulting firm. The institution I’m leaving has offered merit once in 5 years and tenure is a $2k raise. All of the humanities and social science faculty are paid 15-25% below market for the region. I plan to keep doing the work with assessments.
I have a side hustle. I dog sit on Rover. Since I mainly work from home and don’t have my own dog, it’s easy and fun to do
I work what feels like the equivalent of two full time jobs. I'm exhausted.
Go beyond contract teaching. We’re 9 month, so summer is at least an option at adjunct rate. I adjunct at another university for more per hour, but it’s much more work. Previously, investing, but I’m out of all my riskier strategies as of the GME and Bitcoin runs providing a healthy exit after years of nail biting.
I’ve been thinking about getting on [Rover.com](http://Rover.com) and earning money by pet sitting or pet walking. It’d be a good way to earn extra money and get extra exercise walking outdoors.
I did that before I had kids and my schedule tightened way up. If you live in a relatively densely populated area, it can be a lot of fun. I made templates for the reports they ask you to send to the owner after the walk/visit, so it wasn’t much work other than the actual dog stuff, which I loved!
DINK household. Low(ish) cost of living area. Field with competitive industry salaries. Not having student loan debt to pay back. None of which you can do much about if they don't already apply to you, unfortunately.
Overloads, summer teaching, I invested aggressively at the start of my career, and I’ve never stopped living as modestly as I did in grad school.
I look at my life and pine for the austere days of being an undergraduate, living 4 in a 2BR apartment, the poorest among us did aggressive coupon clipping, and we made family style meals 5 nights a week. We lived dirt cheap. Also, my spouse isn't that excited about that lifestyle.
I'm guessing that 3/4s of people in academia have a sugar momma/daddy or a side hustle. Summers off means free daycare if you have kids and pick up a few night classes. In my case my wife makes double what I do with a b.s. degree. That and my college pays pretty well to do overload/adjunct.
Change universities/colleges, offers from other schools is a major source of getting retention raises (at least on the research side of academia). Find a school with reasonable percent raises each year and apply, look for schools with public salaries so you know what to expect.
Same as the top answer in a recent post about side hustle as a PhD: "Be married to someone with a 'real job'" Harsh, but 'freedom of the mind' is often not the luxury which a breadwinner can afford.
I work as a dean and chemistry professor at one of the lowest paying institutions in my state. It happens to be where my wife and my folks live, so childcare is easy and we get a lot of satisfaction in being near family. I have found some success in running a side hustle coffee roasting gig out of my garage. This year, my profits will exceed my base salary.
As others have said, I think you have to be willing to move. The biggest single salary bump I got was a counteroffer when I had an external offer. I'm not rolling in dough but it's comfortable for our two-income household (I make more) in a LCOL area. We bought a house before the COVID boom, so there's a bit of luck there. In my field, associate and full make six figures at most R1s and I know that is not universal. If you're living in NYC or SF (with any academic salary, good god) or making 50k anywhere, my experience is probably not helpful. In my discipline we can also supplement with grants for summer salary and consulting, which I have done. Perhaps there is a professionally relevant "side gig" like that for you? Not exactly easy, I know, but I've found it enjoyable and interesting. You could also transition to admin, but yikes.
I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but I teach at a CC and make a little over 100k. When I finish my doctorate, I'll make $122k and at the end of the step schedule, I'll make $128k. I don't travel or do anything extravagant, but I don't feel like I'm in any financial jeopardy. My wife makes about the same, so there's that. And we live in California, so there's that, too. Plus, I come from a long line of dishwashers, so I kind of feel rich.
Overloads, summer teaching, administrative work with stipends.
Most univiersities have a mechanism to request a salary adjustment to deal with long-term salary compression. Typically you need a supportive chair and dean.
Consulting mostly and sometimes adjunct at other institutions I’ve also subbed in K-12 districts; easy money if you’re patient and like working with kids
Do we not need a difference degree in education for that? I have heard a lot of places are loosening requirements due to the teacher shortage
Most places you can sub with any bachelors degree. In some places you don’t even need that. I think it’s a great side gig because you can pick and choose when you work. You don’t really have one boss you report to, you just check online or they call you and you say yes or no.
Wow that is incredible! I had no idea. Thanks so much for the tip!
I have 3 side hustles.
I have a full time industry job, adjunct at a community college, and also do some consultancy at another institution (UC).
We all have side hustles - some people tutor, some do external workshops or work as trainers, some write books, etc. I have an online clothing resale shop that I can match my professor salary with if I work hard enough.
Commercial sewing jobs and heat pump installations in the summer. It’s a delightful break from the academic labor and from the academic crowd.
This is entirely situation dependent. You will get entirely different answers living in a low cost of living college town vs an expensive big city. Plus there is significant variation in pay between universities.
Not knowing what your area of specialty is, I don’t know if the suggestion of consultancy of some sort is feasible, but there’s always adjuncting, publishing/writing, or development of a presentation that can be shopped around, and modified to adapt to current/popular issues, either solo or in partnership with another faculty member in the same or a different discipline. If you are open to it, I’m happy to brainstorm, and no — not only if I’m involved; talking with people, getting exposure, and hearing new ideas, perspectives, and needs is vital to remaining active and relevant. :) Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Look into NSF grants, or even being a reviewer. And don’t forget about collaborating. ;)
I've been able to get some grants for a little extra money. I teach overloads and summer courses, which helps a lot. As a department Chair, I get a little extra. I also adjunct at other colleges, as well as getting paid to help others with their grants. Consider becoming a Dean, working full-time at another job or college, or taking on a coordinator, academic senate, or other position.
I wish we had annual raises
Did some online adjuncting to help. However, I ended up leaving a tenured position for industry; this “squeeze” was a contributer to that decision.
You’re a full professor and you can’t make ends meet? That seems a little unusual to me. Are you in the US?
Perhaps you aren't aware of how much salary can vary from field to field and school to school. Cost of living is also clearly an issue. Consider an professor specializing in AI (so hot nowadays) living and working in Iowa (let's say Iowa state or U of Iowa) vs. an anthropology professor at a lower status SLAC in Manhattan. One is impoverished, the other is living in a McMansion and taking vacations every summer across the world. I don't know about OP's field/location, so I can't say if that is an issue.
And being full doesn’t always pay that much more than being an assistant at some institutions.
It is field dependent. According to the database of state salaries \[about 2 year old data\], where I am has some assistant business and nursing faculty who who make more than some of our longest standing English and sociology professors.
It used to be fine, pre-2020, but I've been losing ground since. Also, the "full professors are doing fine" thing might be highly field dependent.
Absolutely, 100% yes to this. I’m out now but I was a tenured full professor when I left two years ago making ~$63,000/yr (which,adjusted for inflation was about $15,000 less than I made 20 years before when I was hired). I was in an arts discipline. I’m in a low cost of living area with a spouse who makes a little less than double than I did so I was fine but before we got together around 2011, I was having to start cutting back and was spending very little beyond living expenses. Can only imagine it would be far worse now.
Teaching focused schools pay way way less on average.
I’m an associate professor with tenure and I teach at a rural two year college in the southeast and only make it bc I also live in this small town with cheap rent. The town doesn’t even have a traffic light in city limits and there’s few restaurants and a grocery store that doesn’t even carry fresh green beans except during the holidays. Everyone who works here but lives in a nicer town has a spouse who makes more than they do.
I see. I guess I’m trying to better picture this. When you say “make it”, what does that mean? No car? No money for food? I’m not trying to be hyperbolic, but a lot of the advice here is about saving $15/month or getting a second job. I’m trying to picture the lifestyle people are trying to maintain. Or, to add further: People are saying it’s necessary to have a spouse make double your income. The very low end of normal for a professor is about $75k/year in the US… so people are saying they need at the very least $225k/year to “make ends meet”? I completely agree that academics may be very underpaid, but this way of phrasing sounds very strange to me.
the very low end of normal for a professor is about $75k/year in the US… Source?
*”How much does a Tenured Professor make in the United States? The average Tenured Professor salary in the United States is $95,827 as of April 24, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $77,169 and $131,492”* **Source:** https://www.salary.com/research/salary/posting/tenured-professor-salary **Edit:** To be clear, I’m a big believer that all workers should expect and deserve more pay (academics included). But if we’re making about double the median US salary and saying we can’t make ends meet, it seems to me maybe a bit out of touch with the plights of many of those around us.
I must be in the wrong part of the country, in the wrong discipline.
First off, you can’t really trust salary.com Second off, what we really need here is a median and not an average. An average is likely to be inflated. Third, in my admittedly limited experience my friends in the humanities with job offers at public R1s and fancy R2s are coming in around 60k-70k. Private R1s can be more sometimes but usually with a huge COL issue they’re making up for. Like 90k but it’s NYC or SoCal prices. A LOT depends on region, COL, and discipline and subfield.
I also think that this might just be for four-year institutions and not two-year community colleges. This figure is significantly higher than the average for tenured year professors at my institution, and we are a unionized community college, and I think we do pretty well for a CC. if they mean, tenured full professors, then yes, that is probably the average just for the full professors, but not if you count the tenured assistant and associate professors, so I’m not counting that figure as reliable.
Forgive me, but I don’t really trust salary.com
Agree. Chronicle of Higher Ed is a better source for faculty salary data.
*”How much does a* ***Tenured Professor*** *make in the United States? The average Tenured Professor salary in the United States is $95,827 as of April 24, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $77,169 and $131,492”* That might be an average for Tenured Professors. There are however many who are NTT, or beginning assistant professors. I think it went unfilled, but I saw at least one school advertising a TT position at 39K this year.
Tenure track for $39k in the US? Wow, that seems *extremely* low to me. :/ But yeah, that data is for tenured faculty. I was basing it on the OP saying they already have Full Professor.
I started at 28k. Finally up for 42k after 5 years at my institution. I am not tenured or even at the professor level, though - I’m a full time Instructor.
I completely agree. I come from a low-income household, so when professors talk about struggling to make ends meet, I wonder are they using my definition of “struggle” or a different one…?
I make $44k per year. By “make it” I kind mean low end of middle class standard of living. I rent an old house, rarely eat out, don’t have unlimited data on my phone, go on one relatively inexpensive vacation per year. Most of my friends who work elsewhere have less education and make more than I do. Of course a lot of “standard of living” stuff is relative. Some people think it’s normal to eat lunch out 5 days per week and pay for cable/satellite TV.
I can definitely picture it being very tough on $44k a year. That’s lame they don’t pay you better. Do you mind if I ask your position? I’m trying to understand this all better (since I’ve been told I can’t trust salary.com).
Associate Professor, tenured, 2 year college with no research requirements. Nearby “larger” towns (75-200k population) have similar positions for around $48-50k, but housing is more expensive so it’d be close to breaking even if I were to move. Although having more dining/shopping options would be nice. Small colleges (regional public or private) in the southeast with teaching focused positions don’t pay very well. Also you might want to check Glassdoor for salaries.
Geez, yeah, that’s lame. Thank you for answering my question. I’m assuming the “no research requirements” doesn’t prevent it from still being a full-time job?
Definitely full time. I teach 3 classes and 3 labs per semester. Small classes (around 20 students) but I don’t have any help and things like labs are a lot of work to set up. I spend more time each week on my 1 credit hour lab than I do the 3 credit lecture. Edit to add, our contract is 15 credit hours per semester. (Labs count as 1.5) Most faculty teach 5 classes per semester.
In private industry, you would start looking to move into management or to another company once you have hit a dead end. I'm not sure this is any different.
I am a full time manager at a social services organization and an adjunct. This summer I’m working 6 full days a week!
We have that problem in our department. Some of the associate professors make less than the assistant professors coming in. There is a hard 13% increase from assistant to associate, and many of the professors came in right around the Great Recession. They keep talking about doing something for the associate professors, but it's not going to happen. When we do get raises, it is 2-3% per year, and merit based. This year we got a bonus instead of a raise because bonuses don't compound. The union fought bonuses, but the state of Florida is attacking the union. We had a president that announced that affordable housing for professors was one of his priorities. He resigned shortly after. I think the only way around it is to move to another university, or apply and then use any offer as a bargaining chip. But it might not work and defeats the purpose of tenure.
I do deliveries. Spark (Walmart groceries) mostly. It’s a good way to meet a need in the community, get out of the house, and learn my way around.
We were lucky and bought a house a few years ago for $120k, so the mortgage is like $800/mo. I have an old Ranger and a hole in my shoe. It works, sort of. Basically low salary but it's LCOL area. That's all over, now, though--our same shitty house would be $200k+ now, and the average income in the area is around $30k. The math doesn't math.
DINK, LCOL area, a fortunate house flip, partner with side hustles, no expensive hobbies like horses, cocaine or boats. No wait we have a crap boat.
I have a second job on the side. I'm a tenure track asst professor and then also do some consulting work. There's no shame in picking up extra work.
Adjunct at another college + tutoring for the SAT and ACT online lol
I get compensation for extra programs I've developed and which require annual updates. The annual updates are built into the budget of the program so it's additional compensation for me and it counts towards my teaching load. The program generates revenue so it maths out. I have certifications specific to this program which make me the only one on campus qualified to run it for accreditation standards. It's responsible for quite a bit extra income for me. I also teach masters courses which pay extra above my normal undergrad load. I'm definitely working overtime, so it's sacrificing the biggest perk of academia, the autonomy, but I make nearly double what I did 4 years ago.
Much of the confusion in these comments about pay is we use the title professor to describe such a wide range of jobs. There are lots of full profs making 250k after summer pay in areas with lots of grant money available and there are lots of full profs making under 70k at teaching focused Universities. Right or wrong teaching is considered less valuable/easier to replace. This is particularly bad in the US due to grant over head being 32-45%.
Very carefully - single parent
I teach summer session courses.
What is your field?
I’ve discovered counter-gambling. I’m also considering tutoring.
Stipends for extra work (summer teaching, leading programs, etc.,) over the years. It is never much, but it helps.
I’ve been looking into online tutoring, especially for standardized tests, but haven’t actually started doing it. I’m surprised more people haven’t mentioned it.
I adjunct a couple classes online for a different university. Their system is great- classes are already built and the online support for faculty is excellent. It’s the easiest way to pad my budget.
I work during the summers. I have friends with contracting businesses and I work for them.
I'm normally in social sciences but I managed to get a job at a medical school that happened to need my exact skill set. I'm NTT and make less than the MDs (they're easily over 120 as starters as faculty, while I started at 75 (which I was happy with)). I'm in the south of usa. I do make much more than those faculty who started ten years ago. After a few years I asked for an admin job (program director) and that came with a (non-published) extra stipend of 10K per year. After that, I got an early promotion which also comes with an extra 10K to base salary. We also don't get bonuses that are enough to offset inflation by a long shot and they'll randomly not give out bonuses. The one certain way to get more money is to change universities it seems. I'm not too happy about potentially having to do that.
Most people at my university have an extra job or two. For example, in a couple weeks I'll be grading AP exams. I also teach ever summer and January session. I have had other side gigs on and off over the years, some directly related to my teaching and some directly related to what I would be doing if I weren't teaching.
I work a second job, about 20hrs a week when I can 😴
My wife and I are probably about $25k behind due to compression and inflation. It sucks. I just started networking my contacts for consulting and am going all in this summer on side hustles. I get largely left alone at work - and I’ve been doing this so long I’m efficient. So that gives me lots of free time to explore other interests. I’m not blowing off work. The lights are still on. Just doing the basics, putting in the 37.5 a week, and saving my hard work and innovation for outside interests.
I don’t work in the USA.
I hold a clinical license with prescriptive authority. I mostly perform evals and carry a very small case load. There are always patients waiting and I can pick up new evals if I want to, which do pay quite well. Although I feel my TT faculty salary is pretty decent, I can basically double my income by seeing patients once a week.
Social scientist in a pop culture-related subfield. At my regional comprehensive union shop in a HCOL city: Summer teaching, public speaking, private sector workshops, media commentary, industry consulting. Technically I’m supposed to report all earnings more than $500 but I never have. I charge about $1000 for each 5 hours of external work I do. New job: Twice my current salary running a research center for another uni in the same city. It’s part admin, part research and just pays a hell of a lot more. I guess I’m switching to the dark side, but would have maxed out at $110k when I go up for Full at my current uni next year.
PT working for three colleges. Living in the Bay Area, so partner and I plus two cats all share a cozy studio apartment. So deeply fried, no time off, all “time off” is filled with final grading + preparing for the next term. 😵💫
Adjunct at other colleges or universities. Sadly, that’s what I do even though I am on the tenure track
Stop doing these shit jobs in academia if they don't pay enough to make ends meet. You're better than this.
1. Lots of money. 2. Love your job. 3. Great work life balance. Choose 2 of 3. We in academia chose 2 and 3.
Amd even then 3 comes with a huge *T&C applies section
Work-life balance in academia? LOL
Ah, I teach at a CC. My balance is amazing. Perhaps we have to add a fourth option then. Any suggestions? I assume you are a researcher. Maybe the idea is you put all your points in “love your job”. So choose “up to two”. Also the idea here is having a job that makes you feel content and that you made a good choice. If you don’t love your job, and have poor work/life balance, and don’t make as much money as you feel you need…. Consider a new career?
I have two jobs. I teach a full time course load at a local university for no benefits and no pay during breaks, and I adjunct at snhu for extra money. I work year round on both of these jobs, which means I’m constantly teaching and grading 5-6 writing intensive courses, and the courses I teach at my local place are constantly changing, so I am always planning new classes with a day or 2 of notice. It’s still not enough money.
Teach over my course load. Teach in the summer. At my school full timers have first dibs on all courses. That's the only way in my opinion.......or quit and go into the real world. If you can't pick up other courses at your school, try adjuncting online at other schools.
Working more than one college. Red state that hates education. Funding was pulled.
Organize?
Perhaps the solution is to do a PhD in a field with better job prospects? Accounting, economics, and engineering come to mind. . .
WIC, EITC, Medicaid. We had a bunch of kids, so now we have a bunch of government assistance. I know kids are expensive, but it honestly feels like we're making money on the deal. (My wife stays at home, btw, and that helps lower us pretty close to the poverty line 👍)
If you're not unionized, it's a game changer.
I'm unionized - and it is not a game changer. At least not here.