Disparities in salary, rank, and tenure among faculty members have been an interest of leaders and policymakers both inside and outside academe. Researchers have consistently found that faculty characteristics such as experience, research productivity, institution type, and teaching field relate to faculty pay and outcomes (Fairweather 1995; Bellas 1997; Bellas and Toutkoushian 1999). Differences by gender and race/ethnicity are also evident, with relatively few women and minority faculty teaching at doctoral institutions and holding tenure and the highest ranking positions (Jusenius and Scheffler 1981; Alpert 1989; Smart 1991; Ashraf 1996; Nettles, Perna, and Bradburn 2000). Additionally, wage gaps between male and female faculty remain after controlling for numerous sociodemographic, human capital, productivity, and employment characteristics (Barbezat 1991; Glazer-Raymo 1999; Nettles, Perna, and Bradburn 2000). These gender and racial/ethnic equity issues are important to individuals currently working within the professoriate and to those who hope to attract a diverse pool of talent to the profession in the future (American Association of University Professors 1999).

Using data from the 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:99), this report examines how gender and race/ethnicity relate to a number of faculty outcomes and characteristics, including the following: salary, rank, tenure status, education, experience, institution type, teaching field, workload, and research productivity. The report focuses on full-time faculty and staff who had instructional duties for credit in fall 1998,¹ comparing men and women as well as members of four racial/ethnic groups: White, non-Hispanic; Black, non-Hispanic; Asian/Pacific Islander; and Hispanic. It also includes a regression analysis that shows the residual relationship of gender and race/ethnicity to salary after taking into account other faculty characteristics. As a follow-up to the report Salary, Promotion, and Tenure Status of Minority and Women Faculty in U.S. Colleges and Universities (Nettles, Perna, and Bradburn 2000), which used data from the 1993 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:93), the current report also examines changes in faculty outcomes and characteristics between 1992 and 1998.