By SUSAN JONES
The University regularly tracks salaries for faculty and staff, and despite the lack of any significant raises for the past few years, those reports keep coming.
In the past few months, the Senate Budget Policies committee has received the annual mean and median salaries of full-time employees for fiscal year 2022 and the 15-year salary cohort study, which the Office of the Provost conducts every three years examining the salaries of long-standing faculty and staff.
Mean and median salaries
The budget committee received the mean and median salaries report, which can be viewed here (with Pitt sign on) in May, but did not have time to discuss it.
The report groups salaries by responsibility centers and job type, from data gathered in October 2021. For faculty, the numbers reflect nine-month equivalent salaries. For the School of Medicine, faculty salaries reflect only the amount they get from Pitt. Staff are listed with 12-month salaries.
Some categories are left blank if there are three or fewer people in that area, so as not to reveal individual salaries. Deans are included in executive, administrative and managerial staff under the Office of the Provost. Employees are associated with the responsibility center that processes their employee record. For instance, Mellon and distinguished professors within the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences show up in the Dietrich School dean's office responsibility center, rather than with their department.
This year’s report also includes research and postdoc associates.
Below are some highlights from the report:
STAFF
Highest mean salary
Senior Vice Chancellor Business and Operations: nine employees, $204,203
Athletics: 206 employees, $144,515
Office of University Counsel: 24 employees, $137,255
Highest median salary
Office of University Counsel: 24 employees, $139,036
Senior Vice Chancellor Business and Operations: nine employees, $132,000
Pitt IT: 279 employees, $77,333
Lowest mean salary
University Library System: 88 employees, $32,848
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, natural sciences: 186 employees, $35,627
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, Humanities: 32 employees, $37,040
Lowest median salary
University Library System: 88 employees, $40,792
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, natural sciences: 186 employees, $41,614
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, humanities: 32 employees, $42,673
FACULTY
Highest mean salary
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, dean’s office: 37 employees, $184,252
Katz Graduate School of Business: 89 employees, $179,488
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs: 24 employees, $125,838
Highest median salary
Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, dean’s office: 37 employees, $184,252
Katz Graduate School of Business: 89 employees, $176,403
Graduate School of Public and International Affairs: 24 employees, $117,983
Lowest mean salary
University Library System: 60 employees, $58,251
Senior Vice Chancellor Health Sciences: 23 employees, $63,908
Pitt–Greensburg: 75 employees, $66,400
Lowest median salary
University Library System: 60 employees, $47,987
School of Medicine: 2,482 employees, $53,182
Pitt–Bradford: 71 employees, $64,814
Post-docs and research associates
Several departments had only one or two people in this category, so their salaries were not included to protect their privacy.
Other than the Learning Research and Development Center — with 30 employees at a mean salary of $74,462 and median of $68,455 — all of the other salaries were grouped closely together.
The mean salaries ranged from $49,303 in the Dietrich School humanities programs (four employees) to $54,047 in the School of Medicine (423 employees). The median salaries were lowest again in Dietrich School, humanities, at $48,500, and highest in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (nine employees), at $54,540.
15-year salary cohort
The report that Amanda Brodish, associate vice provost for data analytics, presented to the budget committee in April reflects salaries from the fall of 2005 to the fall of 2020. The salary increases for faculty and staff who were here both of these years are compared against four metrics — maintenance raises; inflation; merit and market equity raises; and any extra salary increases given periodically to those at lower salaries — and reported as a percentage of how many people exceeded those metrics.
Excluded from the survey were University of Pittsburgh Physicians faculty and anyone who moved between faculty and staff.
Out of 1,660 staff, 97 percent exceeded the maintenance raises; 94 percent exceeded inflation; 91 percent for merit and market equity; and 75 percent for the extra raises.
For the 933 faculty who qualified for the survey, 95 percent exceeded maintenance; 87 percent exceeded inflation; 86 percent for merit and market equity; and 79 percent for the extra raises.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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