Salary and fringe benefits for full-time and part-time faculty at U.S. community colleges including collective bargaining and local tax appropriations

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Date
2015
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University of Alabama Libraries
Abstract

This study provides a detailed description of full-time and part-time faculty salary and fringe benefits in U.S. public community colleges nationally and by geographic type. A modified version of the 2010 Carnegie Basic Classification of Associate's Colleges was used to reclassify "Two-year Colleges under Four-Year Universities", "Primarily Associates", and "Baccalaureate/Associate's Colleges" into the seven existing geographic Carnegie classifications. Data was obtained from the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) for the 2010-2011 academic year, and the Fall 2010 Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) Survey of Contingent Academic Work. Further analysis of salaries and fringe benefits groups states into those with and without collective bargaining, those with and without substantial local appropriations, the megastates and nonmegastates, and California compared to the rest of the nation. Significant differences in compensation for full-time faculty based on geographic type of community college were revealed. The national average salary was $63,717, while the average salary of faculty at rural medium sized community colleges was $52,893. Salaries earned by faculty at institutions with collective bargaining are far higher than in colleges without collective bargaining. Suburban faculty at institutions with local appropriations had the highest salary levels at $75,155 on average. Full-time community college faculty in California have the highest average salary of any state in the nation. The national average salary for part-time faculty per credit hour was $809.99. Part-time faculty with collective bargaining had higher salaries than those without collective bargaining. The part-time salaries of megastates and nonmegastates are similar. Fringe benefits for part-time faculty had variation by institution type, with more part-time faculty at suburban community colleges reporting fringe benefits than those attending rural or urban institutions. This study includes recommendations for further research that include (1) the adoption of the 2015 Modified Carnegie Basic Classification of Associate's Colleges, (2) performing additional quantitative statistical analysis of the data, and (3) requesting USED/NCES/IPEDS to begin again to collect fringe benefit data. Other recommendations include determining strategies to attract and retain faculty, performing a national study examining part-time instructors, and performing a similar study with K-12 faculty for comparison.

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Electronic Thesis or Dissertation
Keywords
Higher education administration
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