Leadership vs. faculty pay

“Administrators out-earn professors” is too blunt: a large share of academic leaders areprofessors who still teach. Splitting the leadership bucket into those who teach and those who don’t changes the picture — at Georgia Tech the teaching deans/chairs are the top earners, while pure administrators sit below teaching faculty.

Median salary by group, FY2025

Institution	Teaching faculty professors, lecturers	Faculty administrators leadership title + also taught	Pure administrators leadership title, did not teach
Georgia Tech	$155,767n=1.4K	$233,983n=145	$121,300n=757
UGA	$113,744n=2.8K	$195,450n=154	$124,000n=517
Georgia State	$70,122n=2.6K	$152,945n=133	$94,736n=726
Kennesaw State	$69,034n=2.4K	$151,697n=94	$90,106n=480
Georgia Southern	$82,807n=1.2K	$129,300n=70	$72,780n=350
West Georgia	$34,462n=815	$122,712n=49	$88,500n=165
Georgia Gwinnett	$75,663n=587	$98,528n=34	$86,265n=127
Valdosta State	$57,560n=624	$112,061n=39	$85,778n=86
Augusta	$104,400n=1.8K	$165,831n=107	$115,478n=311

Pure administrators ÷ teaching faculty, over time

The corrected gap: median pure-administrator pay divided by median teaching-faculty pay (teaching deans excluded from both). Above 1.0× means non-teaching administrators out-earn the typical professor.

Pure-administrator median ÷ teaching-faculty median

Fiscal year	Georgia Tech	UGA	Georgia State	Kennesaw State	Georgia Southern	West Georgia	Georgia Gwinnett	Valdosta State	Augusta
FY2025	0.78×	1.09×	1.35×	1.31×	0.88×	2.57×	1.14×	1.49×	1.11×
FY2024	0.79×	1.11×	1.36×	1.30×	0.89×	1.87×	1.08×	1.35×	1.19×
FY2023	0.76×	1.11×	1.40×	1.23×	0.91×	1.30×	1.13×	1.29×	1.17×
FY2022	0.78×	1.14×	1.40×	1.27×	0.97×	1.14×	1.10×	1.25×	1.06×
FY2021	0.77×	1.22×	1.40×	1.29×	0.96×	1.23×	1.09×	1.26×	1.06×
FY2020	0.79×	1.29×	1.70×	1.34×	1.02×	1.15×	1.20×	1.19×	1.14×
FY2019	0.80×	1.36×	1.60×	1.36×	1.04×	1.26×	1.16×	1.19×	1.16×
FY2018	0.82×	1.08×	1.62×	1.56×	1.03×	1.28×	1.19×	1.15×	1.18×
FY2017	0.82×	1.06×	1.64×	1.75×	1.03×	1.17×	1.19×	1.18×	1.13×
FY2016	0.81×	1.09×	1.76×	2.20×	0.98×	1.29×	1.19×	1.06×	1.18×
FY2015	0.81×	1.08×	1.23×	2.37×	0.96×	1.11×	1.13×	1.04×	—

Georgia TechUGAGeorgia StateKennesaw StateGeorgia SouthernWest GeorgiaGeorgia GwinnettValdosta StateAugusta

Groups are derived from the title taxonomy (“Executive & Leadership” vs “Teaching Faculty”) crossed with whether the person taught an enrolled section that fiscal year. Pure administrators include many mid-level directors and managers, which is why their median can sit below faculty; the highest academic pay concentrates in faculty administrators (chairs, deans, provosts who retain a professorship).