A Four-Step Faculty Compensation Model: From Equity Analysis to Adjustment

Among the varied analytical challenges institutional researchers face, examining faculty pay may be one of the most vexing. Although the literature on faculty compensation analysis dates back to the 1970s (Loeb and Ferber, 1971; Gordon, Morton, and Braden, 1974; Scott, 1977; Braskamp and Johnson, 1978; McLaughlin, Smart, and Montgomery, 1978), both conceptual and operational questions on how to identify, and correct for, inequity in pay persist. Similarly, there is no dominant approach to ensure faculty compensation reflects changing market conditions. Thus, the dual goal of fashioning compensation analysis to screen for both internal equity and external calibration in pay faces a number of challenges. After briefly addressing these, this chapter lays out four steps that could be used in a compensation model for instructional faculty at a public land grant university.