Physics Faculty Salary Calculator

We have updated our faculty salary calculator using data from our 2021 survey of faculty members. The data come from an AIP-funded survey of physics and astronomy faculty members. We randomly selected a set of representative departments, stratifying by the highest degree the department offers (39% of all departments were in the sample; the population of departments is virtually identical to the departments in our rosters ). We then compiled a list of faculty members by visiting each departmental website. There is the added nuance of the possibility that an adjunct faculty member is employed by more than one of the sampled departments. That is testable, and we accounted for that.

We then attempted to contact each faculty member via email and followed up with non-respondents several times. We received responses from about 1,800 faculty members; this represents a 33% response rate. The composition of respondents by rank was consistent with data from our Academic Workforce survey. There was no evidence of bias in the responses.

For the calculator, we ran ordinary least squares regressions using the natural log of the salary as the dependent variable. We use the log transformation because salaries are skewed; the transformation gets the distribution of the dependent variable close to normal (as required by the model’s assumptions). Four different regressions underlie the salary calculator, and we use the regression that fits with your identified parameters. (For example, the national salary model does not include state-level data.)

The regression models explain about 60 – 65% of the variation in salaries.