UF leads the state of Florida in paying professors with USF-St.Pete second
MIAMI (AP) – The University of Florida is ahead of the rest of the state when it comes to bumping up pay for its full and associate professors.
Florida full professors received an average 8.8 percent salary increase in 2017-18, according to an American Association of University Professors faculty compensation survey. Associate professors received an 8.3 percent salary bump.
Both figures were the highest increases among 23 Florida colleges and universities listed in the survey. The University of South Florida-St. Petersburg offered the second-highest raises for full professors (6.8 percent), while USF-Manatee offered the second-highest increases for associate professors (7.7 percent).
Salary changes for assistant professors, instructors and non-tenure-track faculty at UF were not available, according to the survey. The average full professor salary at Florida is $149,100, second highest in the state behind the University of Miami ($164,200). Associate professors at UF make an average salary of $100,000, while assistant professors earn an average salary of $88,200.
UF president Kent Fuchs said he takes into account two factors — market and merit — when it comes to faculty salaries and salary increases.
“We work hard at tracking what the faculty in each of our departments get paid here and what their peers are getting,” Fuchs said.
UF faculty received a 3 percent salary pool increase before the start of the 2017-18 school year, according to public documents. Promoted faculty, from assistant to associate and associate to full professors, received salary increases of 9 percent.
In addition, merit increases are eligible to professors who have received at least one satisfactory evaluation and have been employed by UF for at least one semester. Merit raises are awarded using existing criteria established by the faculty, chairs, and deans of each unit. UF administrators also have discretion to make market, merit or equity increases to faculty members’ pay.
Fuchs said the pay bumps are in line with UF’s mission to climb from a top 10 public institution in the country to a top 5 institution. Earlier this month, Florida tied with Georgia Tech as the eighth-highest ranked public institution in the country, according to U.S. World and News Report’s 2018-19 college rankings. In addition, UF is in the process of hiring 500 new faculty to reduce its student-to-faculty ratio from 19-to-1 to 16-to-1. About 200 of those 500 faculty members have been hired.
“That’s our goal,” Fuchs said. “To do that, we need the resources to get there … the quality of the employee, they should be paid here what they’re paid elsewhere and we shouldn’t underpay them.”
