Higher Ed | Daily Report

The average salary for a full-time professor in California increased by less than 1 percent over last year, according to a new national survey from the American Association of University Professors.

Photo by Pam Roth

The figures are part of a national report that found salaries for full-time faculty increased by 1.2 percent from the previous year – the lowest year-to-year increase recorded in the 50 years since AAUP first conducted the annual survey, Inside Higher Ed reports.

Yet the data is an understatement of the real state of affairs, particularly for faculty at public institutions in California. That's partly because the figures don't adequately account for furloughs.

An unpaid furlough doesn't technically change a person's base salary; it changes his or her take-home pay, according to AAUP.

So, while CSU Los Angeles, for example, reported the average salary for a full professor increased from $93,700 to $95,500 in the last year, that doesn't tell the whole story.

Some full professors in the California State University system received merit pay raises in 2009-10. But nearly all faculty and staff took hits. Most CSU employees took two furlough days per month – calculated as a roughly 10 percent reduction in take-home pay, said California Faculty Association President Lillian Taiz.

The union, which represents CSU faculty members, had previously fought for pay raises that would have increased salaries by 10 to 12 percent over the last two years, Taiz said.

"We've got faculty who bought houses, expecting raises that were agreed to in our contract, and then on top of not getting those, we're on furloughs. We've got folks so far underwater and living day to day, it's a little bit terrifying," she said.

Keeping in mind the significant caveats, we've put together a snapshot of the average salaries for full professors in 2010 compared to 2009, according to AAUP data for California universities.

Here's a quick look at the top 10 California universities in average salaries for full-time, full professors:

1. Stanford University: $181,400
2. California Tech: $171,900
3. UCLA: $148,000
4. UC Berkeley: $145,800
5. University of Southern California: $145,800
6. Santa Clara University: $140,300
7. UC San Diego: $135,400
8. Claremont McKenna College: $135,100
9. UC San Francisco: $135,000
10. Pomona College: $134,700

Scroll through this list to see average salaries for full professors in 2009 and 2010 in California.