How much do professors make?
Just curious, how much do professors at private universities make on average, and what is their potential salary(does their salary raise the longer they stay there?) Also, I'm thinking of becoming a philosophy professor, so I was wondering if they get paid lower or more than most professors
Comments
Adjuncts (40% of all college professors) make about 20k a year without benefits. Full-time professors (the other 60%) make between 40k and 70k starting salaries, and most won't make 100k mid-career (although some will at top schools). The majority of jobs are at small state schools, small private schools, and community colleges, and those don't pay well. Yes, it's supposed to go up a little bit every year (although it doesn't always) and a bit more when you get a promotion. The arts and humanities (that includes philosophy) pay pretty poorly, while science, engineering, and law/business/health professors make more. That's because there's not a lot else you can do with a PhD in philosophy besides teach, and we graduate about 10 times as many PhDs in philosophy as we'll ever need to teach colleges, so there are tons of PhDs who can't find jobs and are willing to work for much less. In the higher paying fields, professor is one of the lowest paying jobs you can take with a PhD, so they have to pay more to get any at all. But it's still a very competitive job to get.
It shouldn't matter what subject you teach. The pay is scaled by the degree you hold (most schools require a Ph.D, but if they allow someone to teach with a Master's , the person with a Ph.D would probably make more teaching the same class), how long you've been there, the number of credit hours you teach, and whether or not you have tenure. And by the college or university where you teach. A Harvard professor would make more than a community college professor. Some schools require a professor to do research and publish, and that takes time away from teaching, but you get paid for the research through grants you apply for.
Figure on a smaller state school starting salary of about $25 per hour for 40 hours per week (even if you have to put in more time for creating lessons and setting up labs) if you teach four classes and going up from there. If you have to teach an overload of classes (more than your union normally allows) you get paid extra.
This is a little variable since it depends on what subject the professor teaches and how much the college or university values that subject. Professors that teach science or business tend to make more than art professors. Professors in a field that the school believes to be it specialty are going to make more as well.