Average faculty salaries nationwide and at UC Davis inched upward last year, despite concerns over a sluggish economy and budget cuts.

The average salary for a full professor at UC Davis in 2002-03 was $99,600; for an associate professor, $67,400; an assistant professor, $58,300. Those figures marked increases over the prior year, and are up from 1999-2000 figures of $91,300, $64,200 and $53,900, respectively.

Average faculty pay nationwide last year rose 3 percent to $65,048 from $62,895, the sixth consecutive year salaries have increased. The rate of increase was smaller than the previous year's rise of 3.8 percent, and was the smallest since 1996-97. Taking into account the inflation rate of 2.4 percent from December 2001 to December 2002, average salaries rose by just 0.6 percent, compared with 2.2 percent in the previous academic year.

The data come from an annual report on the economic status of professors that was released in April by the American Association of University Professors. Titled "Unequal Progress," the report is based on a 2002-03 survey of more than 1,400 colleges and universities around the country and is considered the most comprehensive survey of faculty compensation available. They are adjusted to the equivalent of an academic year employee.

"These surveys are useful in showing general trends across institutions," says Barbara Horwitz, vice provost for academic personnel. "At UC, faculty salary rates, which are subject to adjustment annually based on the cost of living and other considerations, have not substantially increased since 2001 because of the state's financial difficulties. However, UC has continued to fund faculty merits and promotions and will do so again this year because high priority is placed on rewarding merit."

The report points to several factors that have tended to dampen increases in faculty salaries, including pressures on state budgets (which led 13 states to reduce appropriations for higher education), negative returns on endowments for the second year in a row, rising unemployment, and large increases in enrollments. But "overall and on average," the report noted, faculty did see a modest increase in their compensation.

The survey also found that in the case of faculty nationwide:

• As in years past, assistant professors' pay posted the highest increase, at 3.8 percent, compared with 3.4 percent for full professors, 3.1 percent for associate professors, and 2.2 percent for instructors.

• New assistant professors are now basically making the same amount as associate professors. Why? Market demands require higher salaries to attract people to education these days.

• Among both public and private institutions, dispersion of faculty salaries has increased. Dispersion is the extent to which the data are not clustered around the average. That trend is additional evidence that it is becoming more difficult for some institutions to attract and retain high-quality professors.

The report warns about a widening gap between salaries at private colleges and universities and those at public institutions. The average salary for public university faculty members was about 1.1 percent lower than those obtained by faculty members at private institutions.

Another indicator of this problem is the continuation rate for associate professors -- the proportion who remain at their institution from one year to the next. That rate has been lower at public institutions during the last few years, the report states.

Between the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s, the salaries of faculty at public institutions fell relative to the pay of faculty at private colleges and universities, according to previous AAUP reports. This decline was particularly pronounced at the full professor level in doctoral institutions. Between 1978-79 and 1993-94, the average salary of full professors in public doctoral institutions fell from about 91 to 79 percent of that of full professors in private doctoral institutions.

Between the mid-1990s and 2001-02, however, faculty in public and private institutions received roughly comparable average salary increases. During these years, therefore, faculty at public academic institutions did not see further erosion of their salaries compared with their private-sector counterparts. With the salary changes for 2002-03, the previous trend has resumed.

"Because most American faculty are employed in public colleges and universities, and most American students are educated in this sector, the declining relative salaries of faculty in state-supported institutions is a matter of serious concern," the report states.

The survey indicated it does not include the salaries of medical professors, since their much higher pay rates compared to that of other faculty members would skew the results.

In future reports, the AAUP says it would like to elaborate upon the growing numbers of faculty who are employed part time or in non-tenure-track positions. Other issues to explore include determining whether salary data can be obtained by gender, rank and tenure status; revisiting how salary differentials by discipline have changed; addressing in more detail issues relating to faculty health care; and analyzing institutional operating budgets to ascertain how their use has changed.

For more information, see the American Association of University Professors' report at http://www.aaup.org/surveys/zrep.htm.