Colorado College’s current annual expenditure on faculty salaries is approximately $19.1 million. Expenditures for all non-instructional staff are $30.1 million.
Payment for professors is determined by comparing CC to peer institutions like Bates College, Carleton College, Grinnell College, Kenyon College, and Whitman College.
CC’s Finance and Administration office looks at the average salary paid to all full-time professors at these peer institutions and uses that number to determine the average salary for a full-time professor at CC. Depending upon their length of service at the college, an individual’s salary may be higher or lower than the peer average.
With administrators, however, it is not as straightforward. “For some administrator positions we are able to compare salaries to the average salaries of similar positions at the peer institutions. But for other administrative positions at the college, it is not possible to identify similar positions at peer institutions,” says Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration, Robert Moore.
CC’s ultimate goal when it comes to salaries is to pay faculty and administrators a salary comparable to the average handed out at peer institutions.
According to the CC facts page, data from last year tells us that 7.8 percent of non-instructional staff had a salary above $100,000. Meanwhile, the average full-time CC professor salary was $132,200. The average full-time professor at the top 10 highest paying liberal arts institutions earns between $130,100 and $149,000.
The majority of CC professors are not concerned about their salary, since the average salary is above the national average salary of all colleges and universities across the U.S.
“CC faculty generally have good salaries and good benefits for travel, conferences, research, etc. So normally I would say, yes,” responded a CC professor to the question of whether or not they are satisfied with their salary. “But at the moment, I have some reasons personally for being dissatisfied with my salary, and I have talked to the Dean and others about this. So I hope that I will be satisfied later this year, when we get our salary letters noting raises for next year.”
Professors and faculty work hard for the students at CC, and it’s important that they are compensated appropriately for their dedication.