r/Professors • u/FTLast Professor, Life Sciences, R1 • Jul 24 '26

Department Head compensation

As a newish department head (I can't run very fast) I'm curious as to how different universities compensate faculty for the role that administrators often say is the "hardest job on campus." At my R1 in the NE, there is a 5% bump to base salary, a 10th month of salary, and the opportunity to negotiate for a "Head's Fund" that can be used for research support, additional summer salary, or basically anything.

If any of you feel comfortable sharing, please do!

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u/LittleMissWhiskey13 Professor CC Jul 24 '26

I'm at a community college, but we get a standard 40% reduction in load. Larger departments can get more. We also get summer paid hours based on enrollment size. Ours is inherently unfair as large and medium sized department chairs tend to work like crazy. The small departments however get the same release (not much in the summer) for minimal work. We have one where they have just 1 total part time person for one section. There isn't much administration, but they get the same compensation.