Pay Yet Again

The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources has released a pay study that shows that public university salaries continue to fall behind privates. In other bad news, pay for the humanities disciplines lag enough to cast doubt as to whether they are in the same profession as fields like business. The Inside Higher Ed coverage notes:

the CUPA data suggest that the gaps between those in some professional schools and everyone else remain large, and that some humanities disciplines remain stuck with salaries much lower than counterparts across the quad. The median salary for a full professor of English for example ($79,854, across sectors) is less than the median for an assistant professor of business ($84,025). Instructors in English or in philosophy have median salaries below $40,000 at public institutions, while instructors in law and legal studies earn over $60,000 at public institutions.

These salaries do not come from the market but from custom, status differences, and other unjust lock-ins. Will the crisis help us rethink any of this?