This is the public version of this data.
CUPA-HR is the most comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date source of higher education workforce salary data, collected separately for administrators, faculty, professionals, and staff each year. The data here represent pay-increase trends over the past 10 years by employee category.
2025-26 Key Findings
- After receiving historically high increases over the past few years, administrators, professionals, and faculty in 2025-26 received increases that were typical of the years preceding the pandemic. Staff (typically non-exempt employees) received increases that were higher than pre-pandemic levels, though lower than recent historical highs.
- Median pay increases for administrators, professionals, and staff exceeded the rate of inflation for the third consecutive year.
- In 2025-26, staff (who are typically non-exempt) received the highest increases in comparison to other workforce areas. For the past four years, staff received the highest or among the highest increases in comparison to other workforce areas.
- For the fourth consecutive year, tenure-track faculty received the lowest salary increase of all employee categories (1.8%). Across the 10 years of data depicted, tenure-track faculty salary increases have never exceeded the rate of inflation. Tenure-track faculty have not received salary increases in real dollars for the past decade.
Across higher ed, employees are still being paid less in inflation-adjusted dollars than they were in 2019-20 (pre-pandemic). All higher ed employee groups continued to be paid less in 2025-26 than they were in 2019-20 when adjusting to 2025-26 dollars.
- Tenure-track faculty had the largest gap, with salaries that were 11.7% lower on median than in 2019-20 when adjusted for inflation.
- Non-tenure-track teaching faculty also had a large gap, as they were paid 6.8% less than in 2019-20.
- Non-exempt staff had the smallest gap, as they were paid 0.9% less than in 2019-20.
In short, most higher ed employees received median increases that outpaced inflation in 2025-26; however, these increases have not been enough to fully restore lost purchasing power since the COVID-19 pandemic. The persistent lag in tenure-track faculty salaries relative to inflation remains a concern, as they continue to experience negative salary growth.
CUPA-HR members have exclusive access to view this data broken out by highest degree awarded by the institution.
Employee Categories
- Administrators include senior level-positions (e.g., presidents, provosts, chief positions, deputy positions, deans, and department heads).
- Professionals include those with specialized expertise generally requiring a college degree (e.g., librarians, IT professionals).
- Staff include mainly non-exempt hourly positions not requiring a college degree (e.g., clerical staff, custodians, food service workers).
- Tenure-track faculty include both tenured faculty and those on the tenure track, whereas non-tenure-track faculty refer to full-time contract teaching faculty not on a tenure track.
See the Survey Participation and Information Templates for all specific positions and disciplines included in these various facets of the workforce.
Although adjunct faculty and non-tenure-track research faculty are reported on our surveys, we have not included them in this analysis. Data for these faculty can be obtained in Faculty DataOnDemand.
To view trends in pay increases for specific positions or groups of positions, subscribe to DataOnDemand.
Methodology
Trend data was obtained by matching institutions that provided data in both (back-to-back) years of the comparison. First, average salaries were calculated for each position at each institution for each year of the comparison. Data were included in analyses only if an institution provided data on a particular position in both years. Then, the average institutional salary was calculated for each year of the comparison. The percentage change in average salary was calculated for each institution. Final analyses report median institutional change in average salary. The overall number of institutions analyzed varies with each comparison and ranges from 469 to 1,011. Inflation was calculated by measuring year-over-year changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from November to November, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), aligning with the effective dates of each survey year.
Citation Information: CUPA-HR. (2026). Higher Education Workforce Surveys, 2016-17 to 2025-26 [Data set].
If you have a question about our methodology or analysis, write us at [email protected].
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