The UAlberta Salary Scales are available from the UAlberta website. A professor receives a one step increase per year of employment, with the potential of an additional half-step for exceptional performance. Looking at the December 2023 Faculty Salary Scale, a full professor with 10 years experience should earn 156,432 $/yr per year. With an step-size of 2,623 $/yr, a full professor with 25 years experience should earn 195,777 $/yr, and with 40 years experience they should earn 235,122 $/yr. With 40 years experience, they will be around 65 years old. Nothing stops them from continuing, provided they continue to be productive in research and effective in teaching.
The UAlberta Compensation Disclosure List is available on the UAlberta website.
- Why did Rik Tykwinski earn 255 997 $ in 2023? That salary corresponds to a 77 year-old professor. Tykwinski is in his 50s.
- Why is Steven Dew still earning over 400,000 $/yr? I can accept that Dew would be paid more as the VP Academic. But he continues to earn over 400,000 $/yr — 419,584 $ in 2023 — years after returning to faculty!
- Why is Tammy Hopper getting massive annual pay increases? ≈23,000 $ in 2021; ≈41,000 $ in 2022; ≈25,000 $ in 2023
- Why is Alex Brown getting massive annual pay increases? ≈15,000 $ in both 2022 and 2023
I literally only searched the Disclosure List for these four faculty, and all of their pay breaches the Faculty Salary Scale. Sorting by compensation, around 25 % of research faculty are obviously paid above the Faculty Salary Scale. Some are paid over 500,000 $/yr!
Regarding annual increases, the maximum allowable increase on the Faculty Salary Scale is 5944 $ (standard increment plus merit increment). Using the Compensation Disclosure List, looking specifically at compensation pay (not other benefits) and only considering faculty who are not changing appointment (not getting promoted or taking an administrative appointment), I discovered the following number of research faculty with pay increases above the Faculty Salary Scale:
| Year | above 6000 $ | above 20,000 $ | above 50,000 $ | above 100,000 $ | percentage of total faculty |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 224 | 138 | 5 | 1 | 18 % |
| 2020 | 158 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 13 % |
| 2021 | 189 | 34 | 3 | 0 | 16 % |
| 2022 | 223 | 52 | 4 | 1 | 21 % |
| 2023 | 256 | 49 | 6 | 2 | 27 % |
Post COVID, an average of 24 % of research faculty are getting raises above that stipulated in the Collective Agreement! Austerity doesn’t apply to research faculty salaries.
If a research professor is in a profession that normally pays more (doctor, lawyer, etc.), the Collective Agreement should have established market-value correction factors. It has nothing. Actually, it used to be that research professors accepted lower pay for the joy of discovery and creation (intrinsic motivator), freedom to innovate (intrinsic motivator), and employment stability. Now, it appears that money (extrinsic motivator) is the driving force. Intrinsic motivators are always better than extrinsic motivators. I can accept increased pay for administrators — it is a difficult job with added responsibility. However, administrator pay should end when they leave the administrative position!
While there is slush to pay research faculty well above the Faculty Salary Scale, teaching staff are paid substantially less than at other universities. Indeed, teaching staff recently received a 16 % cut to their maximum pay in 2024! Clearly, the singular priority at the University of Alberta is research. Not even teaching is important. Despicable.
Something is seriously wrong at the University of Alberta.
The University of Alberta keeps pleading poverty and demands austerity from employees and departments. Austerity obviously doesn’t apply to research faculty salaries.