English Lit Salaries 2012-13

Please indicate the following: School size, rank/position, starting salary, teaching load, geographical region, urban/rural, misc comments.

Please specify as well candidate status and job level: ABD, Post-Doc, TT, non-TT, starting Assistant, advanced Assistant, Associate, etc. since these factors influence salary levels too.

Would be interesting to see gender given that everyone says women receive lower initial offers and are less likely to negotiate!

For example: Research I, starting assistant prof., $54k, 2/3, midwest, small city, negotiated up from $53k

Back to English Literature 2012-2013

AY 2012-13 English Lit. Salaries
Private R1; starting assistant professor (TT); salary mid-60s (negotiated up 2K from low-60s); moving expenses 5K (up from 3K); computer setup; teaching load 2/2; Rust Belt, city. ABD, male.

Small Liberal Arts college; starting assist. professor TT, salary low-40s with amazing benefits so that helps; reimburse for moving expenses; 1400/yr conference travel; teaching 2/2; southeast; ABD; male.

Small Liberal Arts College; starting asst. prof (TT); 50k; moving expenses 5k; 3/3; midwest, small city; female with completed PhD (1st year out).

Small Liberal Arts; assistant prof (TT) 85,500; moving 3k; 30k start-up; 2/3; accellerated tenure (2013); northeast; Ph.D.; female.

Small Liberal Arts; starting assistant professor (TT) 53.5k; moving expenses 4k; 4/4; northeast; Ph.D.; male.

Private R1; starting assistant prof (TT); salary 65k (negotiated up from 60K); 15k start-up (negotiated up from 12k); moving reimbursed; computer; 2/2; 1-year position for spouse. South, city. ABD, male.

Public R1; Midwest; city; starting assistant professor (TT); salary 54.5; moving 3k; computer; conference travel 1500 per year; first year 2/2, thereafter 3/3 with competetive teaching load reductions. Female with Ph.D.

Private small school; Midwest; small city; assistant prof (TT); 51K (negotiated up over 5k) 2500 moving, 3/3; 1 to 2 conferences funded per year, laptop, family tuition. pre-tenure course reduction. MFA/PHD, male.

SLAC; asst. (TT); 49K, 2K moving, 2K startup, $1.1K travel, accelerated tenure, 4/4 (with 1st yr. course release). Midwest, rural, PhD, female.

SLAC; asst. professor (TT); salary in low 50s, 5K start up and 5K moving (both negotiated up from 2500 each), 3/3 but 2/3 in first year, office set-up with new desktop, competitive conference funding. Midwest, small city. ABD male.

Liberal Arts; Northeast; city; advanced asst. prof (TT); 67.5K (negotiated up from 62K); 4K moving (negotiated up from 2K); 2K conference/travel; 8K first summer research funds; computer; 1 year campus apartment, accelerated tenure; 3/3. Female with Ph.D.

Small Liberal Arts College; northeast; starting assistant professor (TT); 70K (up from mid-60s); 3K moving; 6K yearly fund; 1-2 conferences/year; 2/2; MFA; male.

Questions and Discussion
Q: Out of curiosity, for those of you with the large start-up funds, are you working in fields that require expensive materials?

A: Don't know if this helps, but I included a detailed plan of how I'd spend the money--including travel funds for research on two books I have underway, workshops in a new genre (nonfiction) to help round out my writing and teaching, rented cabins for solitude to write. I doubt I'll use all the money I was alloted--probably more like half--but I do think the estimate-in-writing helped.

Q: Question for the person with the 85.5k salary: are you moving from one tenure track position to another?

A: No. But I do have a good deal of teaching exerience, excellent evaluations and solid publication record. Other places that had scheduled interviews with me (which I cancelled) offered between 75k and 92k for a 2/2 load (I teach a 2/3) for a person with my credentials. My research started here (link at end)--and my best advice on salary is to look over this list and know what you are worth--then ask for no more or less than that:

http://chronicle.com/stats/aaup/index.php?action=result&year=2010&state=&search=&category=&institution=0&offset=25&withRanks=1&sort=institution&limit=25&showall=0

Followup Q: Just curious - what did you negotiate it up from? The AAUP averages don't give any indication of within-rank or across-field variation - if the average Asst Prof is $70k at an institution, that collapses first-year and sixth-years, and treats sciences same as humanities, so you can't just ask for what the average is, right? $85k seems shockingly high to me, but probably just b/c my experiences are with publics (also, $30k startup in English?!). For anyone negotiating w/ publics make sure to check out the public salary data (available from any region's newspaper, usually) so you can actually see people's salaries in your would-be home department, and get a sense of how frequently raises happen. (Just in case anyone doesn't already know to check these databases and is negotiating w/ a public.)

A: Probably more pertinent, how many books/prizes do you have? 50-65 k seems about right for someone ABD with a book at a modest press and not much teaching experience--the first job I accepted started in that range. 40k for the equivalent seems, to me, like exploitation--but the 2/2 teaching load will help that person write his way out of that situation. The ABD fellow who got 70k at the public R1 for a 2/2 is averaging a little more pay-per-class than I am--I'm betting he's a super star with stunning books and real promise. As to the AAUP being off--it's right on target for the pal of mine who accepted a position at a top 5 program last year--at the assistant professor level, with 2 high quality books--private university--2/2--she started at 93k (AAUP quotes 92, average for her school). Universities who have offered me positions in the past thave all been within 5k of the quoted salary ranges.

Q: Please share your experiences negotiating spousal/partner hires.

--> Just ask - include it among your first negotiation points, don't present it initially as a tradeoff, and see what happens. Don't be shy about asking; they're used to the question, even if they can't do anything about it. They really want you, so if it's an institution that has some means, they'll seriously look into it. If not, they'll tell you it's not possible. Think through how much of a dealbreaker or not it is for you, and what levels of position your partner is willing to accept (only TT, only permanent full-time, one-year ok, academic v. support staff, etc.) - and if there are other tradeoffs you might accept.

Q: Can people share retirement plan info? I.e. whether the school matches / contributes to a fund? This can sometimes be 10% or more of salary, so it matters!

--> Private R1. School matches 8% to retirement account when I contribute 5%.

--> Liberal Arts. School contributes 11% to retirement account regardless of personal contribution.