Faculty compensation
Compare academic rank, discipline, appointment type and institutional peers before interpreting faculty salary positioning.
Colleges, universities & independent schools
Education Compensation Consulting for Colleges, Universities and Schools
Faculty, staff and school leadership roles compete in different labor markets. JER HR Group helps education employers evaluate meaningful salary comparisons, review job responsibilities and develop practical compensation structures. Whether you are reviewing university staff pay, faculty salaries or independent-school leadership compensation, the work starts with the right peers and a defensible methodology.
Discuss an Education Compensation StudyThe challenge
Education compensation decisions require the right peer comparisons.
Universities and schools employ different groups with distinct job markets, schedules, and funding constraints. Comparing faculty, student-services professionals, facilities staff and school leadership using one generic salary survey can create misleading conclusions. Effective benchmarking starts by defining each employee population and its relevant peers.
CUPA-HR's 2025–26 professionals survey covers 409 positions from 981 higher education institutions. For independent schools, NAIS DASL benchmarking provides a separate school-focused comparison framework. Availability and licensing of detailed data must be verified for each study.
Professional and staff pay
Evaluate admissions, student affairs, research support, IT, finance and facilities roles using job scope and relevant labor markets.
School leadership and staff
For independent schools, consider comparable schools, regional teacher markets, head-of-school responsibilities and budget realities.
Our approach
Build an education compensation study around actual roles and decisions.
01. Define the study
Clarify whether the priority is faculty benchmarking, staff classifications, leadership pay, selected difficult-to-fill positions or a broader salary structure review.
02. Select relevant peers
Evaluate institution type, student enrollment, academic profile, location and labor-market competition. Treat higher-education and independent-school benchmarks separately.
03. Review job and salary data
Assess role scope, grades, salary positioning and available peer evidence. Document survey limitations instead of assuming similarly named jobs are equivalent.
04. Develop usable options
Summarize market findings, pay-range or classification options, financial considerations and implementation priorities for HR, finance and institutional leadership.
Engagement deliverables
Clear compensation findings your institution can act on.
A focused engagement might address a group of professional staff positions, faculty salary positioning, executive compensation or school-wide salary administration. Depending on scope, deliverables can include documented peer selection, job matches, salary benchmark comparisons, pay-range or classification recommendations, and a concise leadership presentation.
Explore custom salary survey consultingWhy JER HR Group
Compensation expertise with higher education experience.
JER HR Group supports staff compensation, salary benchmarking, classification studies and pay structures. Senior consultant Jennifer Frank has experience in higher education compensation, job evaluation, faculty pay and institutional research. These capabilities help education leaders translate relevant data into practical options while accounting for institutional structure and budgets.
Meet JER's senior consultantsEducation compensation questions
Answers for higher-education HR leaders, university finance teams, school heads and boards assessing salary studies.
1. What is included in a higher education compensation study?+
The agreed scope may include job matching, institutional peer selection, salary market comparisons, staff classification, pay-range design and implementation recommendations. Faculty, professional staff, executives and independent-school employees require distinct methods and data sources.
2. Can faculty and administrative staff salaries be benchmarked together?+
They can be reviewed within one engagement, but should not be combined into one comparison group. Faculty benchmarking typically considers rank, discipline and appointment, while staff comparisons require job responsibilities, level and labor-market matching.
3. How should a college choose peer institutions for salary comparisons?+
Start with institution type, size, academic mission, region, programs and talent competition. Some positions call for comparisons beyond institutional peers. A sound study explains the choice of peer group and limitations of available data.
4. Can independent schools use the same salary survey as universities?+
Not as a default. Independent schools have different teaching roles, leadership structures, employment terms and peer communities. Relevant school benchmarking sources and regional labor markets should be considered separately from higher education.
5. How long does an education compensation study take, and what affects the fee?+
Timing and cost depend on the number of employee groups and positions, complexity of job matching, data access, peer selection, union or governance considerations, and deliverables requested. A targeted staff-pay review is a different scope from a campus-wide classification and salary structure study. JER HR Group can propose an engagement after discussing the requirements.
6. What should we prepare for the first compensation consulting discussion?+
Useful starting points include the institutional organization chart, job descriptions, faculty appointment or staff classification categories, locations, existing pay ranges, priorities and relevant board or budget deadlines. Agree on secure handling before sharing individual-level compensation records.
Let's talk about education compensation
Make your next education pay decision easier to support.
Discuss faculty and staff salary benchmarking, campus job classification, independent-school roles or an institution-wide compensation study with JER HR Group.
Discuss your education compensation needs
