On: Why are academic salaries lower than commonly assumed?

[jey]

I thought a CS professor only makes $70k - $90k, even at a prestigious university.

[yummyfajitas → jey]

I'm reasonably sure this isn't the case. Even in pure math, postdoc salaries tend to start at $50k ($45k in low cost of living areas like Urbana Champaign). Associate (tenure track, but not yet tenured) profs tend to start at $70k. I can guarantee you engineering/CS makes significantly more.

However, the average professor makes very little, because the average professor (of, e.g., Medieval English Literature) has few marketable skills.

[wallflower → jey]

http://chronicle.com/stats/aaup/

Only by institution though..

[graywh → jey]

The CS professors at small schools can make about half that.