The Faculty Salary Benchmark Report, an annual report produced by the UA’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning Support, was published this month, showing that the majority of professors at the UA make less than those at peer institutions.

The report utilizes data from the Association of American Universities Data Exchange and compares the compensation of UA professors to other public, research-oriented institutions across the country.

Previous salary reports have shown a similar trend of below-average compensations for UA professors, which Andrew Comrie, senior vice president for Academic Affairs and Provost, attributes to low state funding.

Comrie said that faculty salaries have been lower than the median other peer institutions, around 80 percent, for a number of years. This is partially due to the UA continuing to recover from massive funding cuts from the state in 2008. Of the 14 UA colleges examined in the report, professors in 12 of them make below the average market salary. Only professors at the College of Pharmacy and the College of Optical Sciences make more than their peers at other institutions.

The salary of full-time professors at the College of Fine Arts showed the highest variance from the national average, with the average salary of $80,000 a year being only 74 percent of the average market compensation. Full-time professors at the Eller College of Management make the highest average income of professors at any UA college, at $208,000 a year, which is nearly at 99 percent of the national market average.

Another issue brought about by low state funding is the inability to give raises, Comrie said, which costs the UA talented faculty in the highly competitive national university system.

“Things like this effect morale, not to mention that we get some of our best and brightest picked off by other schools,” Comrie said.

One thing that President Ann Weaver Hart did to combat low salaries was to implement a merit-based raise program, Comrie said. This program allocates funds from the UA’s budget, rather than the state fund, for every department to recognize exemplary performance and is the first program to offer raises in six years, Comrie said.

The average income of full-time UA professors is 86 percent of the average market salary of $141,00 a year. In 2012, UA income was 88 percent of the average market salary, meaning professors were closer to making the market average, because the average national income of a professor was lower.

The average salary for full-time UA professors in 2013 was $121,000 a year and has not changed from the 2012 income average. Income of associate professors at the UA has increased by $2,000 since last year. Comrie said that the UA is researching how to recruit and retain employees more effectively to maintain the quality of the UA staff and also recognize faculty who do their best.

The average salary for full-time professors has increased by 5 percent since 2008, when the average salary was $115,000 a year.

“Our salary bases are not where we would like them to be,” Comrie said.

According to public records, the UA employee with the highest income is Sean Miller, men’s basketball head coach, at $1.9 million. The UA employee with the lowest income is a test examiner with Student Learning Services at $16,640.

— View the Daily Wildcat’s updated salary database here