^
Just broke $40,000 after seven years of teaching, started in the low $30s, still very much paying off the 7 years of grad school that qualified me to do all this--does that sound like a windfall? And I am very representative of a typical public college humanities professor in this regard.
According to the NEA's
2006 Almanac of Higher Education, and looking at roughly the same timespan for those figures INDY posted, the average national salary for all college faculty (public and private, all fields, all career stages) in 2005 was $64,179. In 1973--and adjusted for 2005 dollars--that figure was $62,003. Not exactly a whopping increase...compare that to the increases in, say, corporate salaries since that time. Of course, you could break this stat down in various ways--private college faculty on average make 10% more; humanities faculty (2005 average $55,299) make a lot less than law faculty (average $122,477), engineering faculty ($86,837) and business faculty ($84,227), etc. (I don't say that with resentment, as I'm well aware most of those folks could make much more outside of academia.) One should also keep in mind that the trend now is for colleges to handle the increase in student bodies by adding on more low-paying, no-job-security 'lectureships' and 'adjunct faculty' positions rather than creating new tenure-track positions, which is where the real opportunities for promotion and significant salary increases are. More than 50% of all faculty positions are now of this type; some of the Ivies haven't opened up
any new tenure-track positions in years now, instead reserving those places for plum picks (star professors at the peak of their career) wooed from other universities.
As a side note, while I'd be happy if I never make more than that aforementioned humanities average, I can't help wondering why people so often seem to get so much more incensed by college professors who make plush incomes than by other kinds of workers who do. A PhD is an
advanced professional degree, akin to earning an MD or JD, and it's a fuck of a long haul in time, money and effort to earn one; most who start the process never complete it. Then once you've earned it, and especially if you're in the humanities, expect to compete against 100-200 other highly qualified candidates for that tenure-track position at Mediocre State U. Then once you've secured that, in addition to a full teaching load, you'll also have to keep up your researching and writing ("publish or perish") as well as service to the university (joining steering, curriculum and search committees; overseeing student groups; advising and tutoring; writing reports etc.). And these are job
requirements--I'm not waxing idealistic about the sorts of things only a really ambitious and driven prof might voluntarily do.
As far as the tuition increases, there are multiple reasons for those; some major ones are:
---- In most states, state budgets for higher education have not kept anything close to pace with the increases in costs of running a college or university--the trend has been to shift the burden to the individual student.
---- There are lots of things feeding into those increased costs, besides, of course, plain old inflation--keeping up with technology, as Irvine mentioned, is a huge one (computerization, upgraded science and library facilities to enable better research, etc.); increasing cost of healthcare, an important part of the compensation packages; increases related to the dramatic growth in numbers of students--more staff and faculty, more buildings, more rank-and-file administrators to oversee the increased grants, facilities and so on; increased expectations from students and their parents in terms of facilities, from dorms to athletics programs to laboratories; competition for students (and thus perceived reputation) calling for greater expenditures on research funding, establishment of special academic institutes, etc. etc. A side effect of all this growth is increasing decentralization of oversight and authority, which can itself hamper efficiency--e.g., does HR realize that the History department is spending funds earmarked for salaries on research grants for faculty instead?
---- The proportional value of aid grants, including publically-funded ones, has decreased significantly over time. This is especially a factor at private schools, where over 60% of students receive institutional grant aid (compared to just under 25% at public universities). For example, Pell Grants in 1980 averaged 35% of tuition costs; now it's only 23%. To make matters worse, merit-based aid, which disproprotionately favors students from high-income backgrounds, has increased much more than need-based aid.
---- At private colleges (and again, relative to operating costs) shrinking endowments and declining donations.
Yes, increased faculty salaries factor into all this too, but as already cited that's a small increase relative to the overall picture, and it's utterly absurd to peg the entire increase in tuition costs on that. And while it's a different topic, the rates charged by student loan outfits further complicate matters. Could many colleges be run more efficiently than they are and still stay competitive, yes absolutely--although good luck designing some one-size-fits-all plan to tackle that. But you're kidding yourself if you think the tuition spiral is going to be reversed without steep increases in public funding.
So yeah, go ahead, ask your friendly forum poli sci professor about my bloated $40K salary after seven years of grad school and seven years of teaching, publishing, advising, serving as department head and sitting on three faculty committees. Did I mention I'm the sole breadwinner for my family of five as well? Sorry, but I don't feel guilty about that at all, and part of the reason why is because I'm still licking my own financial wounds from my years as a student. So I can empathize completely with the financial situation many of my students are in.
credit cards. Mortgages at crazy rates. Blowing three grand on Plasma TV's on our Visa. We have grown complacent. If we didn't have Wal-Mart's ultra-cheap prices, and the Wendy's 99-cent Value Meal, there'd be a revolution in this country. People could not even afford to eat. My God, I wonder how much the national total is for people putting a cup of coffee on the ol'plastic at Starbuck's each year! 
Mr. Blu and I were just taking a hard look at our finances tonight & it ain't a pretty sight. 
The county is reassessing property values & we've been warned to expect a 25% increase which is going to hurt when the new tax bills come in. I've ranted plenty about my health insurance troubles from last summer & $10,000+ in medical expenses that my insurance denied. We honestly figure at this point that we have one of three options: 1) Cancel every communication and entertainment expense we have (satellite TV, cell phones, house phone, DSL) PLUS each of us take on a 2nd job; 2) put our house up for sale; or 3)file bankruptcy.
I just don't have any other answers & I don't see any relief coming. 
The $9000 at 9% is the one I'm paying double on b/c I want that sucker gone.
I haven't saved jack. It's hard to with my salary, which is below 12k. Yeah, I ain't got no shame. Its really awful because there are so many people out there working multiple low-wage jobs just to make ends meet...everything they make is used up, there's hardly room for savings.
) And believe me, if I had even $100 to put in the IRA after my checks ( I have it all figured to the penny, I keep a tight budget) I'd do it. But I have to pay the phone bill you know. 
) 
