Do college professors make a good living?

Basically, most starve. Today about 70% make around $25,000/year as adjunct professors. They'd make more money as electricans. A lot more.

Even tenured profs don't get paid much. Talk about a rough career. Sure I'm a tenured rocket scientist at MIT, but my real salary comes from being a hired gun for Space X. I also think most of my students are a bunch of whining coddled crybabies.

While all this is going down, the cost of a college degree has spiraled due to ramped administrative expenses. I'm going to be sick.

College Faculty: 1970s vs. Today

Workforce Composition

The 1970s: In the 1970s, about 80% of college professors were full-time employees. WFAE In 1975, adjuncts made up roughly 24% of instructional staff at degree-granting institutions. Wikipedia

Today (2025): As of 2025, 68% of all faculty are contingent (non-tenure-track), and 49% are part-time. Highereducationinquirer The academic workforce has fundamentally shifted from the 1970s–80s model, where 70% of faculty held tenured or tenure-track positions, to today's contingent-majority model where 75% of faculty are ineligible for tenure.

So the ratio has essentially flipped: from ~75–80% full-time/tenure-track down to roughly 25–30%.

Salaries — Full-Time Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty (Inflation-Adjusted)

The NCES historical data tells a striking story. In constant 1995-96 dollars, the average full-time faculty salary in 1970-71 was $49,431 — and by 1995-96 it was essentially the same at $49,309. For full professors specifically, it went from $69,841 down to $64,540 in constant dollars over that period. Faculty salaries took a severe real hit during the 1970s inflation and never fully recovered.

Even compared to the average American worker — whose real wages increased by about 40% between 1970 and 2023 — tenured and tenure-track professor salaries actually declined in inflation-adjusted terms over the same period. Lawyers, Guns & Money

Current numbers: The average full-time full professor now makes about $155,000, but that's still down from the inflation-adjusted equivalent of $168,000 they earned in 2019. Inside Higher Ed Converting the 1970-71 full professor salary of $17,958 to 2024 dollars gives roughly $140,000–145,000 — meaning today's full professors earn only modestly more in real terms than their 1970 counterparts, despite far higher tuition revenues.

Faculty salaries declined significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic period, with cumulative real wage decreases reaching 7.5% by fall 2022, and average salaries remain about 6.2% below their pre-pandemic purchasing power.

Salaries — Adjunct Faculty

Adjunct course pay in 2025 averages between $2,500 and $5,000 per course, with some positions paying as little as $1,500. Highereducationinquirer The American Federation of Teachers reports that 25% of adjunct faculty earn less than $25,000 annually — below the federal poverty line for a family of four — and 38% rely on government assistance programs.

An adjunct teaching a full 4/4 load (eight courses per year, which is actually heavier than most tenured professors teach) would earn roughly $20,000–$40,000 with no benefits, no office, and no job security. Meanwhile, a tenured full professor at the same institution might earn $120,000–$160,000+ with full benefits, sabbaticals, and lifetime job security.

The Big Picture

The transformation is dramatic: what was once a profession where the vast majority of practitioners had secure, middle-to-upper-middle-class careers has become one where the majority of instructors are contingent workers earning poverty-level wages — while nearly four out of every five professors were full-time faculty in 1970, barely half are in 2025. Lawyers, Guns & Money Meanwhile, from the mid-1970s to 2011, hiring of full-time non-faculty professionals (administrators) grew by 369%. PBS The money didn't disappear — it shifted to administration and facilities rather than instruction.