Planning and Analysis To:
President Kirk Schulz
Provost April Mason
VPAF Cindy Bontrager
VPHC Cheryl Johnson
Academic Deans
From: Kelli Cox, Director
RE:
K-State Salary Comparisons with APLU
Date: May 22, 2015
First published in 1974, the Faculty Salary Survey by Discipline is a project directed by Oklahoma
State University’s Office of Institutional Research and Information Management. The survey report
provided to us by OSU is a compilation of data from institutions belonging to APLU, and is used to
create the enclosed 2014-2015 APLU faculty salary comparison tables for K-State. As in previous
years, OSU’s salary data are standardized among institutions and provide detailed salary information
by academic discipline and rank. The data submitted for this report are from the November 1, 2014
payroll.
Two methods, all ranks and rank-by-rank, were used to compute the percent of difference between
K-State salaries and the APLU averages. The all ranks method is the difference between the actual
average salaries with all ranks combined. The rank-by-rank method considers the distribution of the
number of faculty in each rank. Due to the differences in the distribution of faculty by rank between
K-State and other APLU institutions, the two methods often produce very different results.
This year’s reports reflect the impact of the 2.0% mid-year merit increase in FY 2014 and the 2.0%
merit increase given to all faculty at the beginning of FY 2015. In addition, there are increases due to
targeted faculty salary enhancements, professorial performance awards, and greater increases for
promotions in rank. (Note: Since the FY 2014 2.0% mid-year merit increase occurred after the
November 1, 2013 reporting date, the increase was not reflected in last year’s report.)
Tables 1 and 2 Summary
Table 1 provides a summary of the average salaries by rank and college for the past five years. Table
2 provides a summary of the K-State average salaries by rank and total university for the past six
years. This year there was a decrease in the total university rank-by-rank Percent Deficit at K-State
(from 16.7% last year to 12.6% this year). All of the nine colleges experienced rank-by-rank
decreases in the Percent Deficit. This is primarily due to the 2.0% raises in both FY 2014 and FY
2015 being reported in the salary data. In addition, faculty with research titles are no longer included
in K-State’s reported data.
The overall average annual faculty salary for K-State increased by $8,035 in FY 2015. All colleges
226 Anderson Hall | 919 Mid‐Campus Dr. North | Manhattan, KS 66506 | pa@ksu.edu showed increases in their respective average salaries.
In comparing 2014-2015 to 2013-2014 reports, faculty salary Percent Deficit at the professor rank
decreased from 18.6 to 14.5%. The College of Technology and Aviation had the largest Percent
Deficit at the professor rank (38.4%). The College of Business Administration followed with 24.7%,
and the College of Arts and Sciences was third with 17.0%. The College of Veterinary Medicine had
a -7.4% Percent Deficit, the lowest at the professor rank.
At the associate professor level, overall salary Percent Deficit decreased from 12.6% to 10.5%. The
College of Technology and Aviation had the largest Percent Deficit at the associate professor level
(20.8%) while the College of Human Ecology showed the lowest (-8.2%).
The overall assistant professor salary Percent Deficit decreased from 17.9% to 11.4%. The College
of Business Administration had the largest Percent Deficit at the assistant professor level (14.8%)
while the College of Human Ecology showed the lowest (-5.0%).
Table 3 Summary
Table 3 provides a summary of 2014-2015 salaries for each college and Tables 3a-3i provide salary
comparisons by discipline and rank. Approximately 20.6 percent (13) of the sixty-three disciplines
have a rank-by-rank Percent Deficit less than or equal to 3%. Five of these thirteen disciplines are in
the College of Agriculture, four are in the College of Human Ecology, the College of Arts and
Sciences has two, and the College of Architecture, Planning and Design, and the College of
Engineering each have one.
Of the previously mentioned disciplines, seven (11.11%) have a surplus in the rank-by-rank
comparisons. Three of these are in the College of Agriculture, and the Colleges of Human Ecology
and Arts and Sciences each have two.
On the other hand, approximately forty-nine percent (31) of the disciplines have a rank-by-rank
Percent Deficit greater than or equal to 10%. Nineteen of those thirty-one disciplines have a rank-byrank salary Percent Deficit that exceeds 15%. Nine of the disciplines with a Percent Deficit of 15%
or greater occur in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Appendix A
The purpose of Appendix A is to provide a summary of the changes within colleges and across
colleges from one year to the next. The College of Veterinary Medicine has a greater surplus than in
FY 2014, and only one of the remaining colleges, Engineering, has a slightly greater deficit than last
year at the Full Professor level. For Associate Professors, all nine colleges are showing
improvements. Architecture, Planning and Design is the only college not showing improvement for
Assistant Professors this year. In the Rank-By-Rank Percent Deficit table, all nine colleges are
showing improvement in Percent Deficit overall, with the Colleges of Human Ecology and
Veterinary Medicine showing surpluses.
I hope you will find this report helpful when making salary-related decisions.
pc: Brian Niehoff, Jeff Morris