US academic salaries have stagnated since 2008 crisis

Recent annual increase amounts to 0.5 per cent after inflation, study finds

Real academic salaries, as compared with consumer prices, have risen only a tiny amount in the United States over the past year and growth has been flat since the 2008 financial crisis, a report has said.

The American Association of University Professors’ annual report on salaries finds little to cheer from the 2019-20 academic year, with the Covid-19 pandemic meaning that universities are now bracing for “what may be the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression”.