The ARL Annual Salary Survey 1998-99
reports salary data for all professional staff working in ARL libraries.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) represents the interests
of 122 libraries that serve major North American research institutions.1
The Association operates as a forum for the exchange
of ideas and as an agent for collective action to influence forces
affecting the ability of these libraries to meet the future needs
of scholarship. The ARL Statistics and Measurement Program, which
produces the survey, is organized around collecting, analyzing,
and distributing quantifiable information describing the characteristics
of research libraries. The ARL Annual Salary Survey is the
most comprehensive and thorough guide to current salaries in large
U.S. and Canadian academic and research libraries, and is a valuable
management and research tool that describes salaries for librarians.
Data for 8,400 professional staff members
were reported this year for the 110 ARL university libraries, including
their law and medical libraries (781 staff members reported by 67
medical libraries and 640 staff members reported by 70 law libraries).
For the 11 nonuniversity ARL members, data were reported for 3,819
professional staff members.
This year’s publication follows the general
format of previous years. Most tables show Canadian salaries converted
into U.S. dollar equivalents at the rate of 1.4177 Canadian dollars
per U.S. dollar.2
Tables 25 through 28, however, pertain exclusively to staff in Canadian
university libraries, and salary data in those tables are expressed
in Canadian dollars.
In the tables that follow, the university
population is generally treated in three distinct groups: staff
in the "general" library system, staff in the university medical
libraries, and staff in the university law libraries. All branch
libraries for which data were received, other than law and medical,
are included in the "general" category, whether or not those libraries
are administratively independent. Footnotes for many institutions
provide information on branch inclusion or exclusion.
RACE AND ETHNICITY
There were 854 minority professional staff
reported in 97 U.S. university member libraries, including law and
medical, six more than last year. Note that the data for minority
professionals comes only from the U.S. university member libraries
following the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) definitions;
Canadian law prohibits the identification of Canadians by ethnic
category.
The Office of Management and Budget has revised
the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and
Ethnicity3
and according to the new standard there will be five minimum categories
for data on race (American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black
or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander,
and White) and two categories for data on ethnicity ("Hispanic or
Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino"). Respondents will be able
to report more than one race by choosing multiple responses to the
race question. The new standards will be used by the Bureau of the
Census in the 2000 decennial census. Other Federal programs will
adopt the standards as soon as possible, but not later than January
1, 2003, for use in household surveys, administrative forms and
records, and other data collections. In light of these developments,
the ARL Annual Salary Survey will also be revising the way racial/ethnic
information is collected in the future.
Currently, minority staff make up 11.1% of
the professional staff in U.S. university libraries (including law
and medical). Specifically, Asians/Pacific Islanders comprise 5.5%,
Blacks comprise 3.7%, Hispanics 1.8%, and American Indian/Native
Alaskan comprise .2%. Recent racial and ethnic data from the
American Library Association (ALA) on academic libraries show that
the sample of academic libraries surveyed by ALA has a higher representation
of Blacks, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and American Indian/Alaskan
Native than ARL libraries. More specifically, ARL libraries have
2.17% less Blacks, .52% less Asian/Pacific Islanders, and .37% less
American Indian/Alaskan Natives compared to the ALA sample.4
Minority professional staff continue to be
disproportionately distributed across the U.S. In Figure 1 one can
compare the number of minority staff with other staff, region by
region. These patterns of distribution have been relatively stable
for the entire history of the ARL data collection experience. Minorities
are underrepresented in the East South Central, New England, West
North Central, West South Central, Mountain, and East North Central
regions. Proportionately to the other areas, there are more minorities
in the Pacific, South Atlantic, and Middle Atlantic areas.
Figure 1
MINORITY PROFESSIONALS BY REGION (U.S.)
IN ARL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES FY 1998-99
|
New
England
|
Middle
Atlantic
|
E
North
Central
|
W
North
Central
|
South
Atlantic
|
East
S
Central
|
West
S
Central
|
Mountain
|
Pacific
|
TOTAL |
%
|
Category |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Black |
17
|
48
|
51
|
22
|
85
|
14
|
13
|
8
|
23
|
281
|
32.90%
|
Hispanic |
12
|
17
|
18
|
6
|
24
|
|
19
|
20
|
22
|
138
|
16.16%
|
Asian |
40
|
78
|
67
|
15
|
56
|
7
|
23
|
16
|
118
|
420
|
49.18%
|
AI/NA5 |
1
|
1
|
5
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
4
|
2
|
15
|
1.76%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minority
Total |
70
|
144
|
141
|
44
|
165
|
21
|
56
|
48
|
165
|
854
|
100.00%
|
Minority
Percent |
8.20%
|
16.86%
|
16.51%
|
5.15%
|
19.32%
|
2.46%
|
6.56%
|
5.62%
|
19.32%
|
100.00%
|
11.1%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Non-Minority
Total |
848
|
1,091
|
1,243
|
486
|
1,063
|
299
|
526
|
424
|
837
|
6,817
|
|
Non-Minority
Percent |
12.44%
|
16.00%
|
18.23%
|
7.13%
|
15.59%
|
4.39%
|
7.72%
|
6.22%
|
12.28%
|
100.00%
|
88.9%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Percent
of staff per geographic region |
11.97%
|
16.10%
|
18.04%
|
6.91%
|
16.01%
|
4.17%
|
7.59%
|
6.15%
|
13.06%
|
100.00%
|
100.00%
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Proportional
Minority
Representation |
-34.11%
|
5.36%
|
-9.45%
|
-27.73%
|
23.90%
|
-43.94%
|
-15.02%
|
-9.63%
|
57.36%
|
|
|
ARL has recognized the difficulties that
the profession has in attracting a diverse workforce and has been
working actively in the development of workplace climates that embrace
diversity. The ARL Diversity Program focuses on issues surrounding
work relationships in libraries, while considering the impact of
diversity on library services, interactions with library users,
and the development of collections.6
Women comprise 72.95% of staff in the four
racial/ethnic groups that comprise minority staff, as compared to
63.71% for Caucasian/Other women in all U.S. university member libraries.
The overall gender balance in the 110 Canadian and U.S. university
libraries (including law and medical) is 35.26% male and 64.74%
female. See Figure 1, above, and Figure 3, below, for more detail
on ethnic distribution.
Figure 2
RACE/ETHNICITY AND SEX DISTRIBUTION OF
PROFESSIONAL STAFF
IN ARL UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES FY 1998-99
United States
|
Female
|
Percent
|
Male
|
Percent
|
Total
|
Main |
4,012
|
63.18%
|
2,338
|
36.82%
|
6,350
|
Medical |
536
|
75.28%
|
176
|
24.72%
|
712
|
Law |
418
|
68.64%
|
191
|
31.36%
|
609
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Minority
7 |
623
|
72.95%
|
231
|
27.05%
|
854
|
Non-minority |
4,343
|
63.71%
|
2,474
|
36.29%
|
6,817
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All |
4,966
|
64.74%
|
2,705
|
35.26%
|
7,671
|
Canada
|
Female
|
Percent
|
Male
|
Percent
|
Total
|
Main |
415
|
65.98%
|
214
|
34.02
%
|
629
|
Medical |
57
|
82.61%
|
12
|
17.39%
|
69
|
Law |
18
|
58.06%
|
13
|
41.94%
|
31
|
All |
490
|
67.22%
|
239
|
32.78%
|
729
|
United States and Canada
(Combined)
|
Female
|
Percent
|
Male
|
Percent
|
Total
|
Main |
4,427
|
63.43%
|
2,552
|
36.57%
|
6,979
|
Medical |
593
|
75.93%
|
188
|
24.07%
|
781
|
Law |
436
|
68.13%
|
204
|
31.88%
|
640
|
All |
5,456
|
64.95%
|
2,944
|
35.05%
|
8,400
|
Gender data
Many readers of previous surveys have inquired
about evidence of gender-based salary differentials. Data on salary
comparisons for directors also are frequently requested. It is perhaps
noteworthy that the average salary for female directors in university
libraries is slightly higher than the average salary for male directors
(see Table 15) for the third year in a row.
Many new hires have taken place in the last few years contributing
to the largest number of women at the top administrative library
position (52 women directors out of 110 total directorships reported
this year) and, consequently, higher salaries for them.
Looking at other job categories, though,
as Table 15 demonstrates, average salaries
for men in most cases still surpass those of women in the same job
category. For only eight categories (of the 27 used in the tables)
do average salaries of women exceed those of men. Moreover, the
overall salary for women is still only 93.6% that of men. Table
17 provides average years of professional experience for many of
the same staffing categories for which salary data are shown in
Table 15. An inspection of data in Table
17 reveals that experience differentials between men and women cannot
account fully for all of the salary differentials evident in Table
15. Table 19 further reveals that the average salary for men
is consistently higher than the average salary for women in every
one of the experience cohorts. This pattern is also repeated for
minority librarians (see Table 20).
Looking into the salaries over a larger period
of time and holding constant the number of libraries over an eighteen
year period (Figure 3), we can see that gradually women are closing
the earnings gap across different job categories, but the process
is very slow. Women earned more than men in only two job categories
(Head, Documents and Circulation) in 1980-81; the same was true
in 1988-89 when women directors and heads of serials earned slightly
more than men; most recently in 1988-99, women earned more than
men in four job categories (Directors, Heads of Circulation and
Computer Systems, and Catalogers). Overall, women earned 87% of
men’s salaries in 1980-81, 89% in 1988-89, and 93% in 1998-99.
Figure 3
SALARY DIFFERENTIALS FOR MEN AND WOMEN
FROM 1980-81 TO 1998-99
(reporting data for 98 ARL university
libraries)
|
1980-81
|
1988-89
|
1998-99
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Job
Category |
Women
|
Men
|
Women’s
salaries as a percent of Men’s salaries
|
Women
|
Men
|
Women’s
salaries as a percent of Men’s salaries
|
Women
|
Men
|
Women’s
salaries as a percent of Men’s salaries
|
|
Mean
|
Mean
|
|
Mean
|
Mean
|
|
Mean
|
Mean
|
|
Director |
$44,872
|
$48,128
|
93%
|
$83,966
|
$82,161
|
102%
|
$124,850
|
$122,107
|
102%
|
Associate
Director |
34,251
|
37,001
|
93%
|
53,472
|
56,220
|
95%
|
75,298
|
77,608
|
97%
|
Assistant
Director |
28,975
|
31,776
|
91%
|
48,263
|
50,034
|
96%
|
69,290
|
71,641
|
97%
|
Head,
Medical |
33,941
|
36,752
|
92%
|
58,642
|
61,559
|
95%
|
89,073
|
98,775
|
90%
|
Head,
Law |
36,839
|
40,248
|
92%
|
66,685
|
78,230
|
85%
|
105,181
|
113,316
|
93%
|
Head,
Branch |
22,671
|
24,946
|
91%
|
36,570
|
40,738
|
90%
|
52,826
|
58,219
|
91%
|
Functional
Specialist |
20,218
|
22,212
|
91%
|
31,800
|
32,914
|
97%
|
44,278
|
44,437
|
100%
|
Subject
Specialist |
21,034
|
21,820
|
96%
|
32,740
|
35,937
|
91%
|
48,126
|
50,562
|
95%
|
Head,
Acquisitions |
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
34,881
|
38,448
|
91%
|
49,684
|
51,052
|
97%
|
Head,
Reference |
22,956
|
24,257
|
95%
|
37,073
|
38,033
|
97%
|
53,219
|
54,364
|
98%
|
Head,
Cataloging |
23,659
|
24,315
|
97%
|
36,361
|
40,706
|
89%
|
52,164
|
54,295
|
96%
|
Head,
Serials |
21,557
|
21,768
|
99%
|
36,805
|
36,122
|
102%
|
45,730
|
55,220
|
83%
|
Head,
Documents |
21,830
|
21,293
|
103%
|
35,378
|
35,235
|
100%
|
49,051
|
49,368
|
99%
|
Head,
Circulation |
20,942
|
20,731
|
101%
|
31,572
|
34,386
|
92%
|
48,598
|
45,379
|
107%
|
Head,
Rare books |
21,979
|
27,138
|
81%
|
34,925
|
43,780
|
80%
|
55,399
|
63,338
|
87%
|
Head,
Computer Systems |
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
40,790
|
44,796
|
91%
|
59,409
|
56,269
|
106%
|
Head,
Other |
21,725
|
23,981
|
91%
|
35,872
|
38,393
|
93%
|
50,884
|
54,435
|
93%
|
Public
services |
18,004
|
18,950
|
95%
|
29,104
|
31,581
|
92%
|
40,228
|
40,901
|
98%
|
Technical
services |
18,163
|
18,668
|
97%
|
29,716
|
30,764
|
97%
|
43,604
|
43,802
|
100%
|
Administration |
20,249
|
21,148
|
96%
|
33,345
|
36,677
|
91%
|
46,629
|
51,779
|
90%
|
Reference
librarian |
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
29,505
|
30,348
|
97%
|
41,523
|
42,220
|
98%
|
Cataloger |
N/A
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
29,519
|
30,008
|
98%
|
43,004
|
41,744
|
103%
|
TOTAL |
$20,329
|
$23,492
|
87%
|
$33,592
|
$37,758
|
89%
|
$48,821
|
$52,368
|
93%
|
There is also a sense that
the gender gap persists in academe in areas beyond the library and
that a renewed commitment to resolve the problem is needed.8
A variety of reasons have been offered as to why these trends persist,
most notably the perception that work is peripheral in a woman’s life
and, consequently, female dominated professions are undervalued. Librarianship
is predominantly and persistently a woman’s profession. The scarcity
of men in the profession has been well documented in many studies
— the largest percent of men employed in ARL libraries was 38.2% in
1980-81; since then men represent about 35% of the professional staff
in ARL libraries.
Institutional Characteristics
and Salaries
A. Public and Private Institutions
Salaries
in private U.S. university libraries continue to exceed those paid
in publicly supported U.S. university libraries. In FY 1998-99,
the differential has increased compared to last year to $2,542,
or 5.2% more for the average position in a private institution.
Only in a few cases — Heads of Acquisitions, Circulation, Government
Documents/Maps, and Serials, and Reference Librarians with over
14 years of experience — do average salaries in the public sector
exceed those paid for similar positions in the private university
libraries (see Table 22).
B. Size of Library
Size
of the library, as measured by the number of professional staff,
is also a significant determinant of salary. As a rule, the largest
libraries pay the highest average salaries, not only overall, but
for specific positions as well. There are a few exceptions, however.
In three position categories the second largest group of libraries
(those that report 75-115 professionals) pay the highest average
salary. In one case the lowest average salary is paid by the second
smallest libraries (50-74 professionals) rather than the smallest.
These exceptions account for less than 4% of the cases where comparisons
can be made. Average salaries for all staff in a size cohort increase
by $1,682, $2,388, and $357, respectively, or a total of $4,427,
as one proceeds from university libraries with the smallest number
of staff to university libraries with the largest number of staff.
These aggregated differentials account for an 9.4% disparity between
the smallest and largest libraries (see Table
23).
C. Geographic Area
The highest salaries are found in the Pacific area (Table
24), followed by New England and Middle Atlantic. All three
areas have overall average salaries higher than $50,000 with the
Pacific area averaging as high as $57,086. Canadian salaries are
the lowest; Canada’s currency has a declining purchasing power against
the U.S. dollar since the early ’90s. Note that the Canadian dollar
has hit new lows (1.4177 Canadian dollars to one U.S. dollar) in
1998-99. Within the U.S., salaries in the West South Central region
are the lowest, followed by the East South Central and South Atlantic
area.
D. Rank Structure
Rank
structure continues to provide a useful framework for examining
professional salaries in ARL university libraries. The following
table displays average salary and years of experience in the most
commonly used rank structures. Readers should be alerted that not
all individuals may have a rank that fits into the rank structure
the library utilizes. Most commonly, directors may have no rank
or a rank outside the structure, and it is common for non-librarians
included in the survey (business officers, personnel staff, computer
specialists, etc.) to be unranked, as well.
The pattern of relationships between rank and salary seen in past
years continues with the present report where higher rank is associated
with a higher average years of experience and a higher salary. Over
65% (5,498 professionals) of the 8,400 librarians in ARL university
member libraries occupy a rank within these three most commonly
found ranking systems.
Figure 4
Average Salaries and Average Years of
Experience of Library Professionals
in Libraries with Three, Four, and Five
Step Rank Structures
|
Three-Step
|
Four-Step
|
Five-Step
|
|
Salary
|
Experience
|
Salary
|
Experience
|
Salary
|
Experience
|
Librarian
1 |
$37,821
|
10.57
|
$35,421
|
6.56
|
$35,588
|
5.98
|
Librarian
2 |
44,995
|
17.15
|
40,962
|
12.35
|
42,635
|
11.14
|
Librarian
3 |
59,497
|
22.35
|
48,942
|
19.17
|
49,057
|
17.06
|
Librarian
4 |
|
|
60,758
|
24.33
|
60,887
|
21.03
|
Librarian
5 |
|
|
|
|
67,728
|
25.13
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
No.
of Staff |
1,520
|
3,118
|
860
|
Inflation Effect
Tables
3 and 12 reveal changes in beginning professional and median salaries,
as well as changes in the U.S. Bureau of Labor’s Cost of Living
Index (CPI-U) for nonuniversity and university libraries. Table
12 includes law and medical library staff in order to maintain
continuity for the 13-year span of time which the tabular data cover.
Table 3 reveals that the purchasing power
of nonuniversity staff at the median has barely kept up with inflation
this year, increasing only 1.7%. The median salary has simply sustained
the 5.3% gain in purchasing power compared to 14 years ago. The
typical beginning professional salary has faired slightly better
by increasing 4% since last year, gaining 15% in purchasing power
since 1984-85.
Median salaries for professional staff in university libraries have
generally made more progress than nonuniversity library salaries,
partly because university median salaries are slightly lower than
those of nonuniversity libraries salaries. The purchasing power
of salaries at the median is 11.6% higher than inflation, and the
median beginning professional salary continues to show a larger
gain — 15.8% — when compared to FY 1985. These levels also indicate
that there has been a minor increase of 1% in the purchasing power
of the median professional salary and 3.6% in the purchasing power
of the beginning professionals salary in ARL university libraries
compared to last year.
Readers are reminded that these data reflect only salaries, and
that there are other compensation issues which may have influenced
the pattern of salaries in various institutions. In addition, a
highly standardized structure for capturing data has been used,
and this may portray results in a way that cannot be fully representative
of a local situation.
Martha Kyrillidou
Association of Research Libraries
December 28, 1998
1
George Washington University became ARL’s 122nd member in 1998
but its salary survey data are not included in this year’s publication
due to the timing of this year’s survey. Salary data on
George Washington University will be reported next year.
2 This is the average
monthly noon exchange rate published in the Bank of Canada Review
for the period July 1997-June 1998.
3 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OMB/html/fedreg/Ombdir/5.html>
4 Mary Jo Lynch,
“Librarians’ Salaries Smaller Increases This Year,” American
Libraries (November 1998): 68.
5 American Indian/Native
Alaskan
6 For more information
on the ARL Diversity Program see <http://www.arl.org/diversity/index.html>.
7 Includes staff
in medical and law libraries.
8 Yolanda Moses,
“Salaries in Academe: The Gender Gap Persists,” Chronicle of Higher
Education (December 12, 1997): A60.
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