Adjunct professor statistics show a large and varied part-time workforce inside American higher education. In fall 2022, degree-granting postsecondary institutions employed 1.5 million faculty members, including 665,200 part-time faculty and 842,400 full-time faculty. Recent compensation data put average pay for a three-credit course near $4,000, but pay and benefits vary sharply by institution type and survey.
Contents
- How large is the adjunct and part-time faculty workforce?
- How has faculty employment changed?
- What do adjunct professors earn per course?
- How does pay vary by institution type?
- What benefits are available?
- What do adjunct faculty statistics show about retirement?
- What do the statistics show about the wider teaching profession?
How large is the adjunct and part-time faculty workforce?
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported 1.5 million faculty members at degree-granting postsecondary institutions in fall 2022. Full-time faculty made up 56 percent of the total, while part-time faculty made up 44 percent. That part-time share is a useful national measure for understanding the scale of work commonly associated with adjunct teaching, although the supplied NCES figures are for part-time faculty broadly rather than adjuncts alone.
The workforce was divided across institution sectors. Public institutions employed 63 percent of faculty in fall 2022, private nonprofit institutions employed 33 percent, and private for-profit institutions employed 4 percent. The number of faculty members was 946,800 at public institutions, 495,800 at private nonprofit institutions, and 65,000 at private for-profit institutions.
Student-to-faculty ratios also differed by sector and institution level. The overall FTE student-to-faculty ratio was 13:1 in fall 2022. It was 23:1 at private for-profit institutions, 17:1 at public 2-year institutions, 14:1 at private nonprofit 2-year institutions, 14:1 at public 4-year institutions, and 10:1 at private nonprofit 4-year institutions.
These ratios describe full-time-equivalent students and faculty, so they should not be read as the number of students assigned to each individual adjunct. They do, however, show why staffing patterns cannot be understood from a single national average.
How has faculty employment changed?
NCES data show a shift in the composition of the faculty workforce between fall 2011 and fall 2022. Full-time faculty increased from 762,100 to 842,400, an 11 percent increase. Part-time faculty decreased from 762,400 to 665,200, a 13 percent decrease. As a result, the part-time share of all faculty fell from 50 percent in 2011 to 44 percent in 2022.
The overall change was not uniform across institution sectors. Public-institution faculty counts changed from 954,200 in 2011 to 946,800 in 2022. Private nonprofit institutions grew from 432,600 to 495,800 faculty members, a 15 percent increase. Private for-profit institutions fell from 137,700 to 65,000, a 53 percent decrease.
The gender composition also changed over the same NCES period. Female faculty increased from 734,900 in fall 2011 to 776,500 in fall 2022, while male faculty decreased from 789,600 to 731,100. Women represented 52 percent of faculty in 2022, compared with 48 percent in 2011.
Longer-term AAUP figures provide a different historical reference point. In fall 1975, 30.2 percent of faculty were employed part time. By 2005, part-time faculty represented approximately 48 percent of all faculty members in the United States. AAUP also reported that contingent positions ineligible for tenure accounted for nearly 70 percent of instructional staff appointments in American higher education, including 49 percent part-time and 19 percent full-time non-tenure-track appointments.
The historical measures use different years and definitions, so they are best treated as separate reference points rather than one continuous series.
What do adjunct professors earn per course?
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reported average part-time faculty pay of $4,093 per course section in 2023-24 for a three-credit course. The same measure was $3,903 in 2022-23 and $3,556 in 2019-20. Nominal pay increased 15.1 percent from 2019-20 to 2023-24, but real pay decreased about 3.9 percent over that period after inflation adjustment.
Another AAUP data snapshot reported average pay of $3,894 for a part-time faculty member teaching a three-credit course in 2023-24. The two figures are close but come from different AAUP survey presentations, so they should not be combined into a single estimate.
The AAUP data also show a broad distribution. In 2023-24, per-course pay ranged from $3,523 at public associate’s institutions without ranks to $6,481 at private-independent baccalaureate institutions. In the 2024-25 AAUP survey table, the all-combined minimum was $700 and the maximum was $45,143. Those extreme values indicate that reported course-section pay can vary substantially and may reflect different institutional arrangements, workloads, or observations.
| Measure | Amount | Period or category |
|---|---|---|
| Average pay per three-credit course section | $4,093 | 2023-24, AAUP |
| Average pay per three-credit course section | $3,903 | 2022-23, AAUP |
| Average pay per three-credit course section | $3,556 | 2019-20, AAUP |
| Average pay per course | $3,000 | TIAA Institute survey reported by AAUP |
| Public associate’s institutions without ranks | $3,523 | 2023-24, AAUP |
| Private-independent baccalaureate institutions | $6,481 | 2023-24, AAUP |
The TIAA Institute survey cited by AAUP reported average adjunct pay of only $3,000 per course, and almost 60 percent of adjunct faculty in that survey received less than $3,000 per course. The survey included 502 respondents from an online research panel, so its results describe that survey group rather than every adjunct professor in the United States.
How does pay vary by institution type?
The AAUP 2024-25 ARES table reported the following average part-time pay per section: $4,818 at doctoral institutions, $3,652 at master’s institutions, $4,772 at baccalaureate institutions, $3,649 at associate’s institutions with ranks, and $3,523 at associate’s institutions without ranks.
Within the same table, average pay was $4,629 per section in the public doctoral category and $6,481 in the private-independent baccalaureate category. These figures show why the label “adjunct professor” does not identify one standardized rate. Institution type, sector, and the structure of the course appointment all matter.
The reported amounts are per course section, not annual salaries. A course-section figure does not establish how many sections an individual teaches, how much preparation or grading time is required, or whether other paid duties are included. It also cannot be directly compared with the annual salary figures for full-time instructional faculty.
What benefits are available?
Benefits data from the AAUP show that access to employer contributions was limited in 2023-24. About 34.4 percent of institutions contributed to retirement plans for some or all part-time faculty members. About 31.5 percent contributed to premiums for part-time faculty medical insurance plans.
An AAUP data snapshot reported that 70 percent of responding institutions made no contribution toward part-time faculty health insurance in 2023-24. This figure is not the inverse of the 31.5 percent medical-insurance statistic because the measures come from different survey presentations and use different wording and respondent bases.
Together, the figures point to uneven access rather than a uniform adjunct benefits package. A part-time teaching appointment may include some retirement contribution, medical-insurance support, both, or neither, depending on the institution and eligibility rules. The supplied statistics do not quantify the value of those benefits or establish eligibility for an individual instructor.
What do adjunct faculty statistics show about retirement?
The AAUP data snapshot on adjunct faculty retirement savings reported an average adjunct age of 50. Seventy-two percent of adjunct faculty were age 40 or older. One-third lived in households with incomes under $50,000.
Retirement saving varied by household income. Among adjunct faculty with household income under $50,000, 43 percent saved for retirement in the prior year. Among those with household income of $100,000 or more, 80 percent saved in the prior year. Across the survey, 64 percent personally saved for retirement in the prior year, while 36 percent contributed to a college or university retirement plan.
Access to a plan was not universal or always clear. Fifty-one percent reported that a retirement savings plan was available to them, 37 percent reported that no plan was available, and 12 percent were unsure whether a plan was available.
The same TIAA Institute survey reported average adjunct pay of $3,000 per course, with almost 60 percent earning less than $3,000 per course. Because the survey drew 502 respondents from an online research panel, its age, income, saving, and pay figures should be interpreted as survey findings rather than a complete census of adjunct faculty.
What do the statistics show about the wider teaching profession?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a median annual wage of $83,980 for postsecondary teachers in May 2024. Overall employment of postsecondary teachers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2024 to 2034, from 1,415,600 jobs in 2024 to 1,512,300 in 2034. That is projected numeric growth of 96,700 jobs, with about 114,000 openings projected each year on average over the decade.
These BLS figures cover postsecondary teachers overall and are not adjunct-specific. NCES salary data likewise describe full-time instructional faculty on 9-month contracts: the overall average was $97,700 in academic year 2022-23. By rank, average salaries were $135,300 for professors, $95,900 for associate professors, $82,500 for assistant professors, $75,300 for instructors, and $71,200 for lecturers.
Average salaries by rank changed by less than 5 percent in constant 2022-23 dollars between 2012-13 and 2022-23. They rose by 5 to 9 percent from 2012-13 to 2019-20 before falling in 2022-23. Since these are annual full-time salary measures, they provide context for the profession but are not a substitute for per-course adjunct pay statistics.
AAUP also reported that 79 percent of part-time faculty had no other teaching job, 17 percent had one other teaching job, and 4 percent had two or more other teaching jobs. Sixty-five percent would not prefer a full-time position at their institution. Among that 65 percent group, 72 percent said their current college job was not their primary position, 16 percent said the part-time job was their primary position and they were not retired, and 12 percent were retired from another position.
Institution context matters here too. AAUP reported that approximately 24 percent of faculty at four-year liberal arts colleges were part time, compared with approximately 20 percent at research universities. These figures describe those institution groups and do not measure the share of adjuncts among all postsecondary teachers.