Madison Shumway
Life Editor
Over the past three weeks, The Bengal has examined the salaries of university employees. The first report in the series focused on ISU’s 80 highest-paid employees, who mostly belong among upper administration. Subsequent reports analyzed how discipline and promotion affect faculty pay (to recap, significantly). In this week’s issue, we zero in on another factor influencing university salary trends: gender.
Women in faculty positions at ISU make 84 cents to men’s dollar.
According to data published by Transparent Idaho and the university’s own budget documents, female faculty members earn a median hourly salary of $29.81 compared to male faculty members’ $35.59 hourly wage. Over the course of a year, that $6 hourly gap adds up to a $12,000 difference in pay.
University-wide, and in eight of nine colleges, men make more than women. The university also employs fewer female faculty than male faculty, though that gap is smaller: 302 women hold faculty positions, compared to 327 men.
When analyzing salaries across all colleges, broad patterns emerge.
Gender of leadership and gender makeup within colleges correlate weakly with pay parity. Three of the four most equally-compensated colleges are led by a female dean, and three of the four most unequally-compensated colleges are led by a male dean. Three of the four most equally-compensated colleges employ more women than men, and three of the four most unequally-compensated colleges employ more men than women.
However, a male dean leads ISU’s most equal college, and a female dean leads the most unequal college. The most equal college employs more men than women, and the most unequal college employs more women than men.
Restricting salary data to a single title retrieves similar results as this report’s initial finding of a $6 hourly pay gap. Male assistant professors make $31.93 per hour compared to female assistant professors’ $27.41 per hour (a $4 hourly pay gap), and male full professors make $43.76 per hour to female full professors’ $39.04 hourly wage (also a $4 hourly pay gap). For reference, ISU employs 51 male assistant professors, 49 female assistant professors, 84 male full professors and 36 female full professors.
Limiting analysis even further than to college or to title results in numbers both more promising and more inconclusive. As previous reports have demonstrated, both position and field heavily influence faculty compensation. However, comparing only faculty holding the same position in the same field means comparing few data points.
Full professors of biology provide one example. Male and female full professors within biological sciences make almost exactly equal median salaries. Men make $37.95 per hour, and women make $37.93 per hour. But the biology department employs a small sample size of 11 male full professors and two female full professors.
In another example, the College of Education employs five male associate professors and three female associate professors, who earn a median hourly salary of $30.75 per hour and $33.73 per hour, respectively. Among that eight-person sample size, women make $3 more per hour than men.
College of Health Professions
The College of Health Professions (CoHP) represents the university’s largest gender disparity in salary. The 49 women employed in CoHP earn a median hourly salary of $30.02, while the college’s 27 male faculty earn a median hourly salary of $46.72.
That’s a $16.70 hourly gap in hourly pay, which may be partially explained by intra-college discipline. Women compose 100 percent of Dental Hygiene faculty, who earn a median $25 per hour. Family Medicine Residency, home to some of the university’s highest-compensated faculty, employs nine men and three women.
College of Science and Engineering
Almost 70 percent of faculty in the College of Science and Engineering (CoSE) are men, and they earn a median $11.31 per hour more than women in the same college. CoSE’s 89 male faculty members make a median hourly salary of $40.16 per hour, and its 42 female faculty members make a median hourly salary of $28.85.
College of Business
The university’s second highest-compensated college, the College of Business, employs 13 women and 26 men. It also maintains a $9.58 hourly gender pay gap. Female faculty members earn a median hourly salary of $48.08, and male faculty members earn a median hourly salary of $57.66.
College of Technology
Male and female faculty inch closer to pay parity at the College of Technology, where women earn a median hourly salary of $23.16 and men earn a median hourly salary of $28.83 for a gap of $5.67. The college employs 24 female faculty members and 58 male faculty members.
College of Education
More women work in faculty positions at the College of Education (CoE) than men. CoE employs 22 female faculty members, who earn a median hourly salary of $26.96, and 17 male faculty members, who earn a median hourly salary of $30.75. That makes for a $3.79 hourly disparity between men and women in CoE.
College of Nursing
In the College of Nursing, which employs 18 female faculty members and three male faculty members, men and women earn a difference of only $1.05 per hour. Women earn a median hourly salary of $30.35, and men earn a median hourly salary of $31.40.
College of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences
Women also outnumber men in the College of Rehabilitation and Communication Sciences, but men outearn them by 70 cents. The college’s 30 women faculty members make a median hourly salary of $33.41, and its 13 male faculty members make a median hourly salary of $34.11.
College of Arts & Letters
The university’s second most equally-compensated college, the College of Arts & Letters (CAL) employs 89 women and 75 men, who earn median hourly salaries of $27.41 and $27.89 respectively. CAL’s pay gap has nearly closed at 48 cents.
College of Pharmacy
The College of Pharmacy (CoP) is ISU’s only college in which women are paid more than men. Female faculty members earn a median hourly salary of $58.86, and male faculty members earn a median hourly salary of $53.42. That’s a gap of $5.44 that favors women, the only one of its kind among all nine colleges. Bucking broad university trends, men in CoP outnumber women 19 to 15, and the college’s dean is male.
Like in the College of Health Professions, discipline may account for the college’s subverted pay gap. All 15 women work within the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administrative Sciences (PPRA), while seven of the college’s 19 men work within the Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences (BPSCI). PPRA faculty, men and women combined, earn a median hourly salary of $58.17 compared to BPSCI’s median hourly salary of $42.90. That disciplinary disparity might explain CoP’s progressive numbers.
