"US academics" are not homogenous. If you compare median salaries (*including benefits*) of *full-time tenured* professors (especially *full* professors who are a minority of all full-time tenured faculty) at *all four-year institutions* (excluding community colleges) in the USA with those of their counterparts in Australia, it's possible that the former make more than the latter (though I'm not sure if they make "a lot more" if compensation is calculated per hour & adjusted for differences in health care, etc.). Full-time tenured professors at four-year institutions, however, are *a tiny minority* of all "academics" (= college teachers) in the USA. According to "The State-Supported Ohio College and University Performance Report" (conducted for the Ohio Board of Regents, available at <http://www.regents.state.oh.us/perfrpt/pr_2_faculty_status8.doc>):
Percentage of First-Year Student Credit Hours Taught by Full-Time Faculty by Sector, Autumn 1998
Full Time GA Part-Time Part-Time
No Tenure Tenure or
Ten. Track
* Community Colleges 53% 0% 47% 0% * State Community 41% 0% 59% 0%
Colleges * Technical Colleges 66% 0% 34% 0% * University Branches 52% 1% 45% 2% * University 47% 23% 29% 1%
Main Campuses
Percentage of First-Year Student Credit Hours Taught by Full-Time Faculty, Autumn 1998
The Ohio State University 28%
Percentage of First-Year Student Credit Hours Taught by Faculty with Academic Rank, Autumn 1998
Prof. Assoc. Prof. Asst. Prof.
14% 8% 7%
The American Association of University Professors reports that "[t]oday, 47 percent of all faculty are part-time and non-tenure-track" & that part-time and non-tenure-track "positions of all types account for more than half of all faculty appointments in American higher education" (at <http://www.aaup.org/ptlink.htm>). According to the AAUP's "General Summary Of The Boston Area Part-Time Faculty Survey":
96% have semester contracts; 82% receive no health benefits; 84% receive no dental benefits; 88% receive no institutional contributions to retirement (other than social security); 67% do not have at least adequate office facilities.
Robert B. Townsend (of the American Historical Association) writes: "The average salary for part-time faculty paid by the course was $2,480 per class. There were wide differences depending on the type of institution, as programs conferring associate's degrees paid an average of only $1,694 per history course, compared to an average of $3,628 at PhD-granting departments. Similarly, the average at public institutions is well below the average at private institutions -- $2,295 at public colleges and universities, compared to $2,664 at private church-related institutions and $3,304 at private independent colleges and universities" (at <http://www.theaha.org/ptcom/salary_ptc.htm>).
Problems are generally worse at community colleges where part-timers are the super-majority.
***** Part-Time Teachers, Full-Time Problems...
By Sara Burnett
PLEASANT HILL, Calif. - For 11 years, Dr. Margaret Quan's car has been her office.
Like the nearly 30,000 other part-time faculty teaching in California's community college system, Quan cobbles together a schedule each semester that usually involves teaching at two or three different colleges, an arrangement that has earned part-timers the moniker of "freeway flyers."
As they drive from campus to campus, files and course materials are stored in the trunks of their cars rather than in desks, and individual meetings with students often take place in parking lots rather than in faculty offices.
All that, Quan says, for few to no benefits and an average salary of about $15,000 a year. But Quan's story is not unusual in California - or elsewhere across the nation for that matter. Figures from the U.S. Department of Education show that 65 percent of faculty at two-year colleges nationwide are part-timers.
A recent study by the department's National Center for Education Statistics, Fall Staff in Postsecondary Institutions, reveals that of the 22,748 new faculty that colleges hired in 1997 - the most recent year for which statistics are available - only 31 percent filled full-time posts.
But at some community colleges, as many as 80 to 90 percent of the instructors are part-time, or adjunct faculty. And at one two-year institution, the Community College of Vermont, 100 percent [!] of the faculty are adjuncts.
There are more than 100 two-year colleges in California. Of the 45,000 faculty members employed, 30,000 of them are part-time, according to the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges. They earn, on average, 37 cents for every dollar earned by a full-time faculty member.
With few exceptions, adjunct faculty members are paid only for the hours they spend teaching in the classroom, with no reimbursement for office hours, preparation time or hours spent grading papers and completing evaluations.
Few part-timers receive benefits, and they have no rehire rights, meaning they must re-apply each semester to teach courses - and hope they are picked up again.....
<http://www.ccweek.com/currentasp/fulltimeproblems.asp> *****
Moreover, it should be kept in mind that "part-time" faculty is a misleading title, in that many "part-time" teachers have higher course loads than "full-timers."
Now, let's take a look at janitors, maids, housekeeping cleaners, etc.:
***** In Indiana in 1998, janitors and cleaners earned an average wage of $8.04/hour or $18,270/year....
...Nationally, the median wage for janitors is $7.98 per hour. Half of all janitors earn between $6.54 and $9.95 per hour. Cleaning supervisors' median wage is $9.42 per hour. Half of all cleaning supervisors earn between $7.49 and $11.95 per hour.
<http://icpac.indiana.edu/career_profiles/34550-print.html> *****
***** In Indiana in 1996, maids and housekeeping cleaners earned an average wage of $6.39/hour or $13,291/year. In the period from July 1997 to June 1998, the State of Indiana Job Service listed 298 job openings for maids and housemen with starting wages that ranged from $4.75 to $10.40/hour or $9,880 to $21,632/year....
...Pay varies with the duties, number of hours worked, and size of household. In addition, the area of the country and the workers training can influence wages. Most domestic service workers work less than full time. Earnings vary from $10 per hour in big cities to less than the minimum wage ($5.15) in small towns. Most of these workers are not covered by the minimum wage law. Live-in workers may receive free room and board. They generally earn more than day workers. Live-in workers, however, may be expected to work longer hours. Most domestic service workers do not receive benefits such as health insurance.
Nationally, the median wage for housekeepers is $890 per month. The average wage for child care workers is $880 per month. Cooks receive an average salary of $1,640 per month. Servants and cleaners receive about $1,020 per month. As a reminder, these wages are low because so many of these workers are employed part time.
<http://icpac.indiana.edu/career_profiles/34560-print.html> *****
As I said earlier, "if I cleaned houses for 8 hours per day, 5 days a week, in the USA or Japan, I would make more money than I do now." On the basis of comparison of hourly wages & benefits, I make less than janitors (whose strike I supported last year), secretaries, etc. at the Ohio State University. The starting wage for a custodial worker at the OSU is $7.71 per hour (at <http://www.ohr.ohio-state.edu/emp/exam.htm>).
Yoshie