Engineering Technology Faculty Salaries: The Past, The Present, And The Future

For the past twenty-two years, the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) has sponsored a national survey of engineering technology faculty salaries. The Engineering Technology Faculty Salary Survey is conducted annually in cooperation with the Engineering Technology Council (ETC) and the Engineering Technology Division (ETD) of the American Society Engineering Education (ASEE) since 1977. Results of the annual salary survey are provided to participants in a report documenting the minimum, average, and maximum salaries of engineering technology faculty and administrators. The Engineering Technology Faculty Salary Survey report also provides participants with a list of participating schools; a summary of minimum, average, and maximum salaries reported separately for twoand four-year program schools; a summary of minimum, average, and maximum salaries for all participating schools; raw data listed by code number for all schools; a ten-year salary summary for faculty and administrators; a summary of average salaries by region and the number of faculty for all faculty and administrators; and graphs of the salary data by region and number of faculty. Today’s administrators must be savvy in their approach to higher administration for the purpose of acquiring additional funds for their faculty and programs. Reports such as the national Engineering Technology Faculty Salary Survey have proven to be a reliable source for developing compensation plans, which seek to attract, retain, and motivate faculty. This paper will look at the history of engineering technology faculty salaries using data gathered from past surveys. In addition, it will compare engineering faculty salaries with engineering technology faculty salaries, and discuss the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in the future of engineering technology in regard to faculty retention and hiring.