Staff Composition and Pay Equity by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
CUPA-HR’s signature surveys have been gathering data for years on representation and pay equity for hundreds of higher ed staff positions. The data shared here can provide invaluable insights for your leadership teams. To view trends in representation and pay equity for custom comparison groups or specific positions, subscribe to DataOnDemand.
Staff positions are generally non-exempt and do not require a college degree. These interactive graphics show composition and pay equity by gender and race/ethnicity for higher ed staff over time.
Composition of Staff by Race/Ethnicity and Gender
Key Findings: Staff employees have a higher representation of people of color than any other higher ed employee group. (Click to deselect “White” in the graph below to view representation of people of color.) This is notable in that staff positions are the lowest-paying positions in higher ed. In 2023, women of color represent about 19% of all higher ed staff, and men of color represent about 13% of all higher ed staff. These numbers have increased slightly since 2017. Skilled craft employees remain the least racially diverse, as 80% are White men, a finding that has persisted across the past 6 years. Notably, skilled craft staff are among the highest-paid staff positions.
Navigating the Chart: Use the drop down-menu to select a subset of staff positions. Click the labels in the legend to select or deselect specific data in the graphic. Slide the circle side-to-side in the bar to change the year.
Median Pay Ratios for Staff by Race/Ethnicity and Gender
Key Findings: Since 2017, women have been paid consistently and considerably less than White men. Pay equity for American Indian/Alaska Native women, Asian women, and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander women was better in 2023 than in 2017. Pay equity was the same or worse in 2023 than in 2017 for Black women, Hispanic/Latina women, women of two or more races, and White women. Men of color fare considerably better than women of color when it comes to pay equity.
Navigating the Chart: Use the drop down-menu to select a subset of staff positions. Slide the circle side-to-side in the bar to change the year.
Methodology: Data were collected in CUPA-HR’s Staff in Higher Education Survey with an effective date of November 1 of each academic year. (For these charts, the academic year is denoted with the last part of the year, e.g., 2023 is academic year 2022-23). Analyses include only non-profit institutions of higher education; each year of all-staff data includes data from at least 640 colleges and universities and at least 133,103 staff.
Median pay ratios control for position. Median salaries by race/ethnicity and sex for each staff position were obtained; then the median of those medians was calculated by race/ethnicity and sex. Finally, each group’s median salary was divided by the median salary of White men to calculate the pay ratio. This controls for the fact that women and people of color may be represented differently in specific positions that pay higher or lower salaries, and it means that the wage gaps present are not explained by the fact that women or people of color may have greater representation in lower-paying positions.