The average salary of full-time teaching staff was $113,407 in 2009/2010, compared to $108,643 in 2008/2009, an increase of 4.4%.
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In 2009/2010, there were 44,423 full-time faculty at Canadian degree-granting institutions. Of these, 14,718 (33.1%) were full professors, 14,941 (33.6%) were associate professors, 10,591 (23.8%) were assistant professors and 4,173 (9.4%) were unranked. These proportions have remained relatively stable over the past 20 years.
Compared to 2008/2009, the number of full-time faculty increased by 5.9%. This increase is primarily due to the inclusion of several new universities in 2009/2010. 1 The analysis of trends over time that follows excludes the institutions that were new to the survey in 2009/2010.
Among the 116 Canadian degree-granting institutions reporting in both 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, the number of full-time faculty increased by 1.5%, with 74% of them reporting gains. Increases occurred in all provinces, with the largest being in Saskatchewan (4.0%), Manitoba (2.5%) and Newfoundland and Labrador (2.4%).
The increase in full-time faculty was not distributed evenly across either rank or sex. Between 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, the number of full professors increased by 2.3%, associate professors, by 3.6%, and the rank below assistant professor, by 16.6%. However, the number of assistant professors decreased by 4.5% and the number of “Other staff” fell by almost one third (30.2%). The increase in full-time faculty was concentrated among females, with their numbers increasing by 3.7%, whereas the number of males was almost unchanged.
Women account for a minority of faculty; however, their proportion has risen steadily over the past 20 years. In 1989/1990, women comprised less than 20% of faculty; by 2009, their share had reached 35.6 % (Chart 1). The share of women grew within all ranks. In 2009/2010, women accounted for 22.8% of full professors, 37.5% of associate professors and 45.7% of assistant professors. This stands in contrast to 20 years earlier, when women comprised just 7.2% of full professors, 18.5% of associate professors and 32.0% of assistant professors.
Within the ranked categories, the overwhelming majority of full-time teaching staff held a PhD in 2009/2010: 88.4% of full professors, 85.6% of associate professors and 77.3% of assistant professors. However, in the “rank below assistant” category, only 30.7% of staff held a PhD, 48.7% had a Master’s degree and 7.5% had a Bachelor’s degree.
The average salary of full-time teaching staff was $113,407 in 2009/2010, compared to $108,643 in 2008/2009, an increase of 4.4%. In 2009/2010, a full professor earned $139,861, on average; associate professors earned $109,535; assistant professors earned $88,932; and the average salary of those in the category ” rank below assistant” was $85,386. The increase in average salary between 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 was greatest for the category “rank below assistant,” which increased by 7.7%.
Average salaries differed by sex. In 2009/2010, the average male earned $118,145, while the average female earned $104,832, or 89% of the average male salary. The difference between men and women is largely influenced by the larger number of males at the higher academic ranks.
The male/female salary gap narrows when within-rank comparisons between males and females are made. Among full professors in 2009/2010, full-time males earned $141,521, on average, while females earned 95% of that ($134,238). The average salary of female associate professors was 97% that of males (at $107,324 and $110,863, respectively), and that of female assistant professors was 98% that of males (at $87, 945 and $89,761, respectively). In the “rank below assistant” professors, the average female salary was 97% that of males (at $84,026 and $87,054, respectively).
The overall wage gap between men and women has narrowed over time as women have come to occupy higher ranks in higher proportions. Whereas women academic staff earned 89% of what males earned in 2009/2010, that figure was 82% in 1989/1990.
There were some differences across provinces. In 2009/2010, the average salary ranged from $98,814 in Nova Scotia to $124,502 in Alberta.