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My uncle is a chemist, and he wanted to see what sort of salary he would have made if he was a tenured chemistry professor, instead of staying in industry. It t

My uncle is a chemist, and he wanted to see what sort of salary he would have made if he was a tenured chemistry professor, instead of staying in industry. It turns out a tenured chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota makes $190,000. The top paid professors were economics and b-school profs, who made $300K+. In contrast, the highest paid tenured humanities prof made about $90K; most made around $60-$70K. Of course, the highest paid people at the university were administrators ($400K) and sports coaches ($1M+). We looked up Wisconsin and the pay scales were similar. I believe every state has a database of state funded university professor salaries, it's pretty eye opening.

hugh3 16y ago
Is this surprising? Professors are paid within the academy depending on what sort of salary they could demand outside. Since the demand for industrial chemists is a lot higher than the demand for industrial philosophers, this seems reasonable.
- starkfist 16y ago
  Sort of surprising. Less so for the salaries of the philosophy profs, which were around what I expected. More so for the big salaries of the other profs. Someone who is a B-school prof isn't necessarily going to make $300K in industry. I mean, this is the University of Minnesota B-school, teaching classes like "Leadership." Not exactly the purview of captains of industry. Likewise, industrial chemists do not typically make $190K. That's $50K more than what my uncle makes as an industrial chemist. Also, these are all taxpayer funded jobs. It seems like the salaries factor in to the new American trend of public sector employees making MORE money than they would in private industry.
  - tptacek 16y ago
    These numbers seem entirely consistent with the broader marketplace. A chemist who is herself qualified to be a chemistry professor won't make $190k in industry; $110k might be a better estimate. An executive might not make $300k; the low $200's might be a better estimate for the CEO of a small (~100 people) company. And, forgive me for what will sound like a snarky observation, but a book store clerk is going to make $40k, not $90k. In all cases, there's a base compensation set by supply & demand in the market, and an uplift on that base set by supply & demand in academia.
api 16y ago
Isn't the pay of sports coaches largely related to the fact that sports is a big earner for the university? So basically you're paying someone a lot of money to put on a popular show that brings in a lot of money.

hugh3 16y ago

Is this surprising? Professors are paid within the academy depending on what sort of salary they could demand outside. Since the demand for industrial chemists is a lot higher than the demand for industrial philosophers, this seems reasonable.

starkfist 16y ago
Sort of surprising. Less so for the salaries of the philosophy profs, which were around what I expected. More so for the big salaries of the other profs. Someone who is a B-school prof isn't necessarily going to make $300K in industry. I mean, this is the University of Minnesota B-school, teaching classes like "Leadership." Not exactly the purview of captains of industry. Likewise, industrial chemists do not typically make $190K. That's $50K more than what my uncle makes as an industrial chemist. Also, these are all taxpayer funded jobs. It seems like the salaries factor in to the new American trend of public sector employees making MORE money than they would in private industry.
- tptacek 16y ago
  These numbers seem entirely consistent with the broader marketplace. A chemist who is herself qualified to be a chemistry professor won't make $190k in industry; $110k might be a better estimate. An executive might not make $300k; the low $200's might be a better estimate for the CEO of a small (~100 people) company. And, forgive me for what will sound like a snarky observation, but a book store clerk is going to make $40k, not $90k. In all cases, there's a base compensation set by supply & demand in the market, and an uplift on that base set by supply & demand in academia.

api 16y ago

Isn't the pay of sports coaches largely related to the fact that sports is a big earner for the university? So basically you're paying someone a lot of money to put on a popular show that brings in a lot of money.