Yesterday, Alex Usher published the average salaries of Canadian college and university presidents on his blog—“One thought to start your day”. Interesting he notes that in 2009, full professors averaged $146,890, college presidents averaged $272,373, and university presidents averaged $353,617.
In other words, college presidents made 1.85 fold and university presidents made 2.41 fold the average salary of full professors.
In 2001 the ratios of the average salaries of professors and presidents were smaller: 1.63 fold for college presidents and 2.09 fold for university presidents.
Would we expect college and university presidents (and other senior administrators) to reward themselves greater increases than they reward faculty members?
Why would university boards allow this to happen especially at times when faculty members are negotiating salaries?
Ultimately, the boards must ensure that everyone is paid a reasonable salary, but the evidence suggests that senior administrators are receiving both unreasonable salaries and unreasonable increases.
