According to a study released early this year by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the highest faculty salary at Johns Hopkins fails to keep up with that of its peer institutions or the national average.
The study was conducted by the American Association for University Professors (AAUP).
The Chronicle of Higher Education releases data about the salaries of professors at universities across the country. The data are organized by an index of the salaries of the highest-paid professors at each university.
According to the figures, Johns Hopkins' highest faculty salary is higher than that of 80 percent of doctoral institutions. Salaries for associate and assistant professors at Hopkins do not fall far below that mark either.
Nonetheless, Hopkins does pay its professors significantly less than its peer institutions.
For the 2004-05 school year, the University of Chicago paid one professor $148,400; the University of Pennsylvania paid its most compensated faculty member $143,400. These institutions pay the fifth and seventh highest salaries of any private university in the country, according to the study.
The average salary for a full professor at a private institution like Johns Hopkins, according to a new report by the American Association of University Professors, is $127,214. The highest paid Johns Hopkins professor gets paid $115,500, almost $12,000 less than that amount.
According to Adam Falk, the interim Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, all salaries are set in consultation with the deans and chairs of the departments.
They take into account "research accomplishments, teaching ability and market pressures" when setting the salary for an individual professor.
Provost Steven Knapp said in an e-mail, "Salaries are determined by what it takes to recruit and retain the best possible faculty, within the limits of what the deans can afford."
Falk pointed out that "almost any faculty member at any university could get paid more doing something else." When people choose to work at universities they are choosing to take a pay cut.
The question then remains about how Hopkins attracts such highly qualified academics and retains them even though other universities may offer them more money. Falk said, "When we attract faculty we don't do it by offering the very highest salary. ... People come for more substantive reasons, like research, colleagues and students,"
Knapp said that "many faculty who come to Johns Hopkins from other universities tell me that they were attracted by the collaborative culture of research and teaching here."
Provost Knapp explained that disparities in the costs of living at different universities across the country also contribute to differences in faculty salaries. "Even though real estate prices have been rising in the Baltimore area," Knapp commented, "housing is still much more affordable here than in, say, New York or San Francisco."
But some professors are not convinced that Hopkins is able to retain the best faculty given the wages that the university chooses to pay.
Mark Blythe, an associate professor in the political science department, said that when Johns Hopkins is competing for high-level professors against universities with far greater endowments, like Princeton University, for example, Hopkins is at the disadvantage.
He cautioned that money did not affect his choice to work at Hopkins "because I was hired at the assistant level."
"It's a very good working environment. We're not indentured labor," he commented. He implied that if a policy went against research then professors would leave. "The higher levels is where Hopkins is at the disadvantage. Princeton has more money than God."
Kevin Hemker, a professor of mechanical engineering, said he came in as an assistant professor so salary did not matter as much. What attracted him then were the research opportunities. Now he says that if the salary "was high enough and the other considerations were there," he would consider moving to another university.
Referring to what the University pays its faculty, Hemker said "Hopkins does OK but not great. It is important for us to stay very competitive for salaries. Would pay ever affect your choice of work? It certainly could if it was high enough and the other considerations were there."
Professor Gabrielle Spiegal, chair of the history department, concurred, saying "Salary has to be seen in relationship to cost of living. We have a real institutional life. I think pay is important, but never the decisive factor"
