When Mayor Bloomberg made his comment about the Occupy Wall Street protests that had been going on for a while back in Zuccotti Park, he mentioned that the protesters protested against the wrong people. "The protesters are protesting against people who make $40,000, $50,000 a year and are struggling to make ends meet." He was no doubt wrong about the protesters' target but he was right that people who make this much are struggling to make ends meet. This amount is close to the average salary of an assistant or associate professor in philosophy in many parts of the US.
According to Salary.com, the median salary of an assistant professor in philosophy in the the US, not including the east and west coasts, is $45,000. For associate professors it's $55,000. After taxes, health care and pension deductions, this amounts to $2,800 a month for an assistant professor on a 12-month salary (i.e., a 9 months salary paid over 12 months), and $3,450 a month for an associate professor on a 12-month salary. These salaries may be decent for a working couple or a single person without children. But add a child or two to the mix and you will see a struggle to make ends meet.
According to The Internal Revenue Service, the bare minimum for food and clothing per month for one person is: $517. For two people, it's $985. Consider an assistant professor with one minor school-age child who has recently moved to a new town or city. Rent or mortgage varies, but $1,000 is not unreasonable, even off the coasts. Utilities, phone and cable come to $300 per month. Let us say that the child goes to a public school with an after school care program that costs $200. Our envisaged assistant professor also has a car loan and a student loan, which together add up to $500. All of this comes to $2,985 per month, the bare minimum according to the Internal Revenue Services. $185 more than she makes. And we haven't even counted co-pays for doctor's visits, medication, gas, car repairs, sports or music activities for the child, a yearly trip to visit family, gifts for birthdays and Christmas, membership fees to the APA, conferences she is not getting reimbursed for, savings for the child's college. Our associate professor is not doing much better. When she is done paying for the first-mentioned items, she has $465 left. If she is lucky that there aren't any car repairs or doctor's visits, she might still be able to afford eating out once or twice and paying for her child's music lessons.
If assistant and associate professors can barely make ends meet, what about assistant teaching professors (our university's fancy name for non-tenure-track faculty)? Some of them make $30,000 a year. This amount of money does not leave room for children, nightly outings or holiday trips. Lowest down in hierarchy we find the adjunct professors who make about $3,000 per course. On a 4-4 course load, this adds up to $24,000 a year. This is only marginally better than a teaching assistantship in grad school.
In a recent post I offered some reasons for thinking twice before going into philosophy. If you are not deeply passionate about philosophy, you may end up deeply disappointed once you reach the end of your studies. It would be great, of course, if people could study philosophy for the sake of learning and getting closer to leaving the cage and the shadows. But who is going to finance this kind of lifestyle? Maybe a rich spouse. But if you don't happen to have one of those, you have to finance this yourself, and you still have to make a living once you are done. If you are deeply passionate about philosophy, you will make do with salaries like those mentioned above. But if you are not, maybe you should reconsider.
Sources:
- Salary.com, http://www.salary.com/salary/index.asp
- Standards for Living Expenses, http://www.savingadvice.com/articles/2009/03/27/104252_standards-for-living-expenses.html
Recent Comments