Salary compression is defined as an issue of inequity when individuals performing the same job responsibilities (and in the same position) have varying compensation levels (Bereman & Lengnick-Hall, 1994; Homer et al., 2020). It occurs when a new employee is hired at a higher compensation than someone with longer tenure within the organization,…

Commonfund Higher Education Price Index® (HEPI) data show that costs for colleges and universities rose 4.0 percent in FY2023, a decreased rate of inflation compared with 5.2 percent in FY2022 and up from 2.7 percent in FY2021. (FY2023 covers the period from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, and coincides with the budget year of most institutions of…

The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is an inflation index designed specifically for use by institutions of higher education. Compiled from data reported by government agencies and industry sources, HEPI measures the average relative level in the price of a fixed market basket of goods and services purchased by colleges and universities each…

The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is an inflation index designed specifically for use by institutions of higher education. Compiled from data reported by government agencies and industry sources, HEPI measures the average relative level in the price of a fixed market basket of goods and services purchased by colleges and universities each…

This report explores the higher education financial aid workforce, including pay and pay equity, staffing, representation, and retention. Taken together, the results in this report suggest the need for colleges and universities to implement strategies to better retain people of color within the financial aid employee pipeline and to ensure…

Research on higher education institution (HEI) employees neglects an essential group--non-instructional staff. Literature on HEI workers and their salaries focuses primarily on faculty and administrators. Furthermore, the literature that does focus on staff salaries neglects variation within this group as well as the role of institutional and…

The Higher Education Price Index (HEPI) is an inflation index designed specifically for use by institutions of higher education. Compiled from data reported by government agencies and industry sources, HEPI measures the average relative level in the price of a fixed market basket of goods and services purchased by colleges and universities each…

The CUPA-HR Higher Education Employee Retention Survey was piloted in May 2022. The survey was created to better understand the segment of the higher ed workforce that is at risk for leaving their current jobs, why these employees are considering leaving, and what higher ed institutions can implement to increase retention and improve the higher ed…

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which is the law that sets federal minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. The FLSA specifies that for an employee to be considered exempt from overtime pay requirements as a "white-collar" worker, the employee must: (1) be paid on a salary basis; (2) be…

This article measures gender pay gaps in Ontario's public post-secondary education sector from 1996 to 2016 using the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Data. We find gaps widening among all faculty ranks. Men were paid on average 2.06%, 2.14%, and 5.26% more than their women colleagues for all employees, university teaching staff, and deans,…

This research brief explores why "projection estimates" are not an effective approach to budget planning by comparing past projections to CUPA-HR's database of real-world salaries. The results shed light on why data-informed and data-driven decisions are a more effective way to think about budget planning. In this brief you'll learn…

Since 2008, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has been conducting a biennial survey of higher education sustainability positions. These surveys collect data from sustainability officers as well as a number of more focused sustainability positions such as recycling/waste staff and sustainable energy…

This year is a momentous one for College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) research. As they celebrate their 50th anniversary of collecting salary data, they are also celebrating transformations in the way data are collected for all salary surveys and in the ways these data are reported. Rather than contributing…

Every two to three years since 2008, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) has conducted a survey of sustainability professionals employed in higher education. These surveys collect information from sustainability staff as well as more specialized positions such as recycling & waste staff and energy…

The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning serves as the governing board overseeing the eight public universities in Mississippi, including the University of Mississippi Medical Center located in Jackson. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is the accrediting body for each of the public universities in Mississippi.…