A STUDY OF SALARIES OF ACCOUNTING FACULTY AT PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERISTIES IN NEW YORK STATE

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1 A STUDY OF SALARIES OF ACCOUNTING FACULTY AT PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERISTIES IN NEW YORK STATE Frimette Kass-Shraibman, CPA, PhD Brooklyn College-CUNY 2900 Bedford Avenue Brooklyn, New York x1533 ABSTRACT Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are wide disparities in salary for accounting faculty within the City University of New York (CUNY) campuses. A study was undertaken, based on available public data, to examine the disparity of accounting faculty salary within the CUNY system. Salaries were also compared to accounting faculty at the various campuses of the State University of New York (SUNY). Differences in salary were found to be statistically significant. INTRODUCTION The City University of New York (CUNY) consists of approximately twenty schools within the borders of New York City. The Professional Staff Congress (PSC) is the union that represents faculties. The PSC, via collective bargaining, has a contract with the City of New York that sets forth lower and upper limit of salaries for all faculties, by title, regardless of discipline. Anecdotal evidence suggested, however, that accounting faculty at some colleges were being paid amounts that exceeded the upper limits of the contract.

2 Faculties at CUNY senior colleges, however, are not paid by the City of New York. By agreement with the City there are paid by the State of New York. The State of New York has its own university system known as the State University of New York (SUNY). A different union, The United University Professions (UUP), represents SUNY faculties A study was done to determine if in fact accounting faculty at some campuses exceeded the amounts in the union contract. Additional data was being collected to compare salaries for accounting faculty at the senior CUNY campuses to accounting faculty at the State University of New York (SUNY). IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY Studying salaries is important for several reasons. Offering higher salaries gives an institution the ability hire better qualified and talented faculty. Also, remuneration is an important factor in job satisfaction and higher job satisfaction is associated with lower turnover rates (Tang, 1995; McShulkskis, 1998; Kass-Shraibman, 2008). Furthermore there is currently a shortage of accounting faculty (Plumlee, 2006)(Noland, Francisco, & Sinclair, 2007). Universities will have to be competitive in terms of pay in order to hire accounting faculty. It would help to understand the patterns of pay for accounting faculty. METHOD Data for this study was collected from publicly available information. Members of the accounting faculty, their titles, degrees, and professional licensure are being obtained from the websites for their respective colleges. Salary information is being obtained from certain websites that gather salary data for all New York State employees. This information is available to the

3 public without the use of passwords or registration. Since faculty and staff of the CUNY senior colleges are paid by the State of New York their salary information is also readily available. RESULTS During collection of data four SUNY schools were omitted, as they did not list accounting faculty separate from other business faculty. These are Fredonia, Genesco, New Paltz, and SUNYIT. Some individual faculty were omitted because data was not found as to their 2007 base salaries in the available database. Data was collected and analyzed for 61 SUNY faculty and 104 CUNY faculty. The mean salary for SUNY faculty was $93, and $86, for CUNY. The difference was not significant (n=165, t=1.642, p>.05). Baruch College is a specialty, well-recognized, business school within the CUNY system. Accounting faculty at Baruch, on average have higher salaries that other CUNY accounting faculty. Baruch faculty had base salaries, in 2007, with a mean of $114, (n=31) while other CUNY accounting faculty had mean base salary of $74, The difference was significant (n=104, t=9.856, p<.001). When Baruch salaries were excluded from the CUNY data the mean CUNY base pay was $74, The difference between CUNY without Baruch and SUNY was significant (n=134, t=4.916, p<.001). When Baruch alone was compared to SUNY there was also a significant difference (n=92, t=3.478, p<.005).

4 DISCUSSION CUNY (excluding Baruch) salaries for accounting faculty appear to be significantly lower than at SUNY and Baruch. CUNY salaries are also lower than other reports of faculty salary. The National Education Association reports average salaries of accounting faculty in New York State to be $84,296 overall and $94,450 for public colleges (State salary surveys.). Their survey included all colleges including community colleges and possibly those that were omitted form this study. Salary.com reported the median salary for accounting faculty nationwide to be $101,172. This is much higher than the CUNY and SUNY average salaries. If CUNY persists in having lower than average salaries for accounting faculty then it is possible they will have problems with retention and hiring of accounting faculty. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH In order to better understand the factors involved in the remuneration of accounting faculty in CUNY the study should be expanded. Efforts should be made to gather data for the missing items: the four SUNY campuses. Also, rank, level of education, and other sought after data, such as professional licenses was not complete. If these data were included it might change the results of the study and our understanding of CUNY and SUNY remuneration policies. BIBLIOGRAPHY Kass-Shraibman, F (2008). An examination of the job satisfaction of certified public accountants as it relates to their area of practice and their locus of control. New York University, New York City McShulkskis, E. (1998). Why do employees leave? HRMagazine, 43(4), 24. Noland, T. G., Francisco, B., & Sinclair, D. (2007). Pursuing a PhD in accounting: What to expect. The CPA Journal, 77(3), 66 Plumlee, R.D, Kachelmeier, S.J, Madeo, S.A, & Krull, J (2006). Assessing the Shortage of

5 Accounting Faculty. Issues in Accounting Education 21(2) State salary surveys. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from www2.nea.org/he/salaries Tang, T. L.-P. (1995). The development of a short money ethic scale: attitudes toward money and pay satisfaction revisited. Personality and Individual Differences, 19(6), Table 1: Average base salary by system N SUNY $ 93, CUNY $ 102, Overall $ 94, Table 2: Average base salary by school and average actual salary by rank for 2007 School SUNY CUNY Lecturer n Assistant Associate Full Albany 120, , , , Baruch 123, , , , , Binghamton 110, , , , , Brockport 90, , , Brooklyn 84, , , , , Buffalo 109, , , , , CSI 95, , , , , Fredonia 68, , , , Hunter 85, , , , , Lehman 71, , , , Medgar Evers 57, , , NYC Tech 74, , , Old Westbury 80, , , , Oswego 78, , , , Plattsburgh 80, , , , Queens 81, , , , , York 81, , , ,