College and Research Libraries ANITA R. SCHILLER Acadeinic Librarians' Salaries One out of every five librarians in American academic libraries was polled as to his current salary. Mean salary reported was $8,425, al- though men's salaries generally were higher than salaries of women with similar qualifications. Salaries in church-related schools were be- low average, and those in junior colleges were above average. When salaries of male librarians are compared to those of male college pro- fessors and those of female librarians to those of female professors, the differences are not as substantial as they are normally assumed to be. Other useful comparisons are also reported. THE LEVEL of librarians' salaries is an important indicator of the value society places on librarianship. During the pres- ent period, salary levels are rising, be- ginning salaries are higher for each new crop of library school graduates (the average beginning salary of $7,300 re- ported for 1967 is $2,200 higher than it was in 1960),1 and attractive job open- ings are widely available. Along with the apparent overall im- provement, librarians are also becoming more concerned about their economic status. Long outdated minimum salary goals are presently being reformulated, and there are many other signs of ac- tivity on the economic front. While li- brarianship appears to be achieving a new recognition in contemporary soci- ety, this in turn may be serving to en- courage librarians to expect higher re- wards for the services they perform. Despite rising salary levels for the pro- fession as a whole, however, salaries for 1 Carlyle J. Frarey and Richard S. Rosenstein, " Placement and Salaries in 1967: The Same Tune- in a Higher Key," Library Journal , XCIII (June 15, 1968)' 2447. Mrs. Schiller is Research Associate in the Library Research Center in the Uni- versity of Illinois. many of its members remain relatively low, and serious inequities continue to exist. Data from a recent national survey of academic librarians (Characteristics of Professional Personnel in College and University Libraries, study performed pursuant to a contract from the U.S. Office of Education) make it possible to describe the salaries of this professional group in some detail. The study pro- vides salary data by sex, age, experi- ence, education and other variables; re- ports academic librarians' opinions of their salaries in te1ms of their profession- al experience; and considers the salaries of academic librarians in relation to those of other librarians and other aca- demic faculty. PoPULATION, CovERAGE AND ANALYSIS The survey was based on a two-stage stratified probability sample of approxi- mately one out of every five individuals employed in professional positions in the more than two thousand college and university libraries in the United States in 1966-67. All types and sizes of higher educational institutions, both public and private, were represented in the sample. I 101 102 I College & Research Libraries • March 1969 In Stage I, 95 per cent of 580 sampled institutions supplied lists of .all their pro- fessional staff. In Stage II, 2,251 indi- viduals , or over 90 per cent of the 2,459 full-time personnel selected from the staff lists to receive a mail questionnaire , supplied salary information. The following salary analysis excludes seventy of these respondents who work on a "contributed services" basis in church-related institutions, but it in- cludes all others, regardless of whether they work on a 9--10 month or 11- 12 month contract. The former constitute 14 per cent, and the latter 86 per cent of the 2,181 respondents who reported a specific basic annual salary figure. Since not all respondents who supplied salary information reported on all other items, such as years of professional ex- perience and faculty rank, the totals may vary from one table to another. In each of the tables, salary data are re- ported for men and women separately, as well as for all librarians as a group. Of the total who reported salary, 37 per cent are men, and 63 per cent are wom- en. BASIC ANNUAL SALARY, 1966-67 The distribution of basic annual sal- aries for academic librarians in 1966-67 is shown in Table 1. The mean salary (aggregate salaries divided by the total number of respondents reporting) is $8,425. The median salary is $7,925· (half earn more and half earn less than this amount). The mean salary is higher than the median because a small minor- ity earn exceptionally high salaries . Four per cent of the respondents earn $14,000 or more, and the highest salary reported is $28,000. The salary reported most frequently (the mode) for men and for women is close to $7,000. One-quarter of the re- spondents earn within $500 of this amount, but this modal salary range ( $6,500--$7,499) is reported more com- monly by the women ( 29.9 per cent) TABLE 1 A NUAL SALARY ( 1966- 67) ' BY SEX ( PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) ToTAL MEN WoMEN S ALARY Per P er P er INTERV AL Cent C ent C ent Under $6,000 7.3 3.1 9.7 6,000-6,499 9.6 6.0 11.7 6,500-6,999 12.3 8.5 14.5 7,000-7,499 13.5 10.2 15.4 7,500-7,999 8 .6 7.1 9.5 8,000-8,499 8.9 8.0 9.5 8,500-8,999 7.3 7.2 7.3 9,000-9,499 6.6 6.7 6.6 9,500-9,999 4.6 5.9 3.8 10,000-10,499 5.3 7.9 3.8 10,500-10,999 3.1 3.6 2.8 11,000-11 ,999 4.1 6.9 2.5 12,000-12,999 3.2 6.2 . 1.5 13,000-13,999 1.5 2.9 .7 14,000 and over 4.0 9.8 .7 Total 99.9 100.0 100.0 Base 2,181 802 1,379 Median $7,925 $8,990 $7,455 Mean 8,425 9,598 7,746 Note : Fig ures are b ased on b oth 9-10 month and 11 - 12 month salaries. than by the men ( 18.7 per cent). Gen- erally, the women tend to be most heav- ily concentrated at the lower ranges of the salary distribution. Slightly over half ( 51.3 per cent) of the women, com- pared to 27.8 per cent of the men, earn less than $7,500. On the other hand, while about one-fifth of all the respond- ents earn $10,000 or more, only 12.0 per cent of the women, compared to 37.3 per cent of the men, are in this upper salary grouping. The median salary for the men ( $8,990) is higher than the median salary for the women ( $7,455) by about $1,500. The difference between the mean salaries of men and women ( $9,598 and $7,746 respectively) is even greater. CoNTROL AND TYPE OF INsTITUTION It is widely recognized that salaries in public institutions tend to be higher than in private institutions, both for li- brary .and other faculty . For librarians, however, data have not been available to describe the breakdown between pri- Academic Librarians' Salaries I 103 TABLE 2 MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY BY CONTROL OF INSTITUTION WHERE EMPLOYED, BY SEx (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) TOTAL CONTROL OF Per Median INSTITUTION Cent Salary Public 59.3 $8,390 Private 40.7 7,252 Private, Independent 24.7 7,395 Private, Church- Related 16.0 6,999 Total 100.0 $7,922 Base 2,181 vate independent and private church- related institutions. As shown in Table 2, the median salary for librarians is lower in church-related institutions ( $6,999) than in private independent colleges and universities ( $7,395). The figure for public institutions, however, ( $8,390) is considerably higher than either of the above. Salaries are more directly related to control of institution than they are to institutional type. Although it was un- expected to find that the median salary in two-year institutions is somewhat higher than it is in those of other types (Table 3), the differences between the median salaries in universities, teacher's colleges, and two-year institutions are relatively slight, and may be too small MEN WoMEN Per Median Per Median Cent Salary Cent Salary 60.8 $9,390 58.4 $7,965 39.2 8,550 41.6 6,959 24.9 8,605 24.6 7,110 14.2 7,790 17.0 6,685 100.0 $8,991 100.0 $7,454 802 1,379 to be statistically significant. The fact that the figure reported for two-year in- stitutions is not considerably lower than it is, however, may be a reflection of the very rapid growth of public junior col- leges within the recent period, spurred by greatly increased financial support. SoME SALARY CoMP ArusoNs The library profession competes among other professions to attract able recruits, and college and university li- braries compete with other types of li- braries for trained personnel.. If .aca- demic libraries seek to draw qualified personnel from the national manpower pool, salaries in these libraries must be on a comparable level with salaries in TABLE 3 MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY BY TYPE OF INSTITUTION WHERE EMPLOYED, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) TOTAL MEN WoMEN TYPE OF Per Median P e r Median P e r Median INSTITUTION Cent Salary Cent Salary Cent Salary University 47.8 $8,020 51.7 $ 9,080 45.5 $7,525 Liberal Arts College . 27.6 7,530 23.4 8,625 30.0 7,220 T e acher's College 9.8 8,280 9.9 9,070 9.7 7,999 " Other Prof. & Tech. School" 0 . . 5.6 7,665 6.2 8,835 5.2 7,215 Two Year Institution 9.2 8,320 8.7 10,070 9.5 7,775 Total 100.0 $7,922 100.0 $ 8,991 100.0 $7,454 Base . 2,181 802 1,379 0 Includes independent .technological , theological , fine arts, and other professional schools. 104 I College & Research Libraries • March 1969 other libraries and with the earnings available in other professions. (For aca- demic librarians who are part of the higher educational community, faculty salaries provide an additional yardstick for comparison. ) Referring to the "NEA Salary Goal which had been set in 1966 at $8,000 a year for a classroom teacher with a Bachelor's degree and no experi- ence ... ," Mary Gaver, a past president of the American Library Association, has urged that "beginning graduates with a Master's degree in Library Science re- ceive a salary of $8,500 a year."2 There- sults of the present survey indicate, how- ever, that of those 1,292 respondents re- porting salary who hold the fifth-year MLS as their highest library degree, 64 per cent earn less than this amount, regardless of experience. Nonetheless, academic librarians as a group seem to earn higher salaries than school and public librarians. In 196~67, for example, the median salary for aca- demic librarians in the present survey ( $7,925) was considerably higher than that for school librarians ( $6,708), 3 and a review of existing data suggests that public librarians also are in a less favor- able salary position. National salary data describing each of the separate portions of the library profession are not regularly available, and salary figures rapidly become out-of-date. 4 It is there- 2 Quoted in Library Journal, XCII (August 1967) , 2713. 3 This figure is based on public school salaries. Na- tional Education Association, Research Division, 23rd Biennial Salary Survey of Public-School Professional Personnel, 1966-67: National Data, Public-School Sala- ries Series, Research Report 1967-Rll (Washington, D.C.: The Association, 1967), p. 22. 4 Salary data from two recent consecutive surveys of state library consultants revealed , for example, that between 1965 and 1967 "some rather spectacular gains have been made." At the earlier date, only 12 per cent earned $10,000 or more annually, while the more recent survey reported 44 per cent at this salary level. Marie Ann Long, "A Reconsideration of the State Library Consultant at Work," in The Changing Role of State Library Consultants, ed. by Guy Garri- son, U Diversity of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science Monograph Series, No. 9. (Urbana, Ill.: Uni- versity of Illinois Graduate School of Library Science, 1968), p. 7 . fore impossible to make precise state- ments describing salary differentials be- tween one portion of the profession and another. Meaningful c01nparisons between the salaries of academic librarians and other academic faculty are also difficult to make. Figures showing oYerall faculty salaries, for example, typically exclude the salaries of administrative personnel, whereas standard summary figures for librarians' salaries include the salaries of administrators (mainly chief librarians) as a matter of course. This has the effect of raising the apparent salary for librar- ians in comparison to other faculty. When chief librarians' salaries are in- cluded in the salary tabulations, the median figure ( $7,925) for academic li- brarians is somewhat higher than it is for this professional group ( $7,717) when chief librarians are excluded. It may be of interest to note here that the median salary of chief librarians alone is $9,750 (Table 4). Another point of difference between librarians and nonlibrary faculty is the varying length of their respective con- tract years. While faculty salaries gen- erally are reported on a nine-month ba- sis, most librarians are employed for eleven months. Furthermore, the salary reported by librarians employed on the 11-12 month contract is not commen- surately higher than that reported by librarians employed on the 9~ 10 month contract (Table 5), whereas among oth- er faculty, increments are probably more directly proportionate to the longer work year where this type of contract obtains. Differences in the nature of the sample selected, in the response totals, and in the way in which survey data are re- ported, are additional factors which should be considered when comparisons are made from one professional group to another. Once aware of these qualifications, none of the available salary figures for academic faculty appear to be precisely I Academic Librarians' Salaries I 105 TABLE 4 MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY BY PosiTION LEVEL, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION ) TOTAL MEN WoMEN PosiTION Per Median Per Median Per Median LEVEL Cent Salary Cent Salary Cent Salary Chief Librarian 13.6 $9,750 20.4 $1 1,7 10 9.7 $8,300 All Others .. 86.4 7,717 79.6 8,577 90.3 7,105 Assoc./ Asst. Librarian 10.3 8,300 11.5 10,250 9.6 . 7,155 Dept./Div. Headt ... 36.7 8,600 37.7 9,450 36.1 8,065 Other Prof. Assistant 39.4 7,195 30.4 7,460 44.6 7,085 Total 100.0 $7,925° 100.0 $ 8,991° 100.0 $7,453° Base . 2,178 802 1,376 0 Median for those reporting position level. t Includes Heads of School, College, and Departmental Libraries. comparable to the present ones for aca- demic librarians. Certain generalizations are nonetheless possible, and it does seem reasonable to conclude that aca- demic librarians earn less, on the aver- age, than other faculty, although they are likely to work as much as two months longer. The mean salary for aca- demic librarians in·, the present study ( $8,425), is considerably lower, for ex- ample, than the mean salary of $10,354 reported by the AAUP for full-time fac- ulty with and without professorial rank in 936 institutions. 5 Similarly, the me- dian salary of academic librarians ( $7,925) is lower than that reported by 5 " The Economic Status of the Profession, Report on the Self-grading Compensation Survey, 1966-67," AAUP Bulletin, LIII (June 1967) , 151. the NEA for teaching faculty in degree- granting institutions for the preceding year. In 1965-66, "the median salary of all full-time faculty personnel is $9,081."6 One particularly striking point is re- vealed by the additional comparative data for men and women, for this ap- pears to explain some portion of the salary differential between academic li- brarians and other faculty. The NEA goes on to report, for example, that "as in other professions, the median salary of women faculty personnel, $7,732, is lower than among men ( $9,275) ."7 6 National Education Association, Research Division, Salaries in Higher Education, 1965-66, Higher Educa- tion Series, Research Report 1966-R2 (Washington, D.C. : The Association, 1966) , p. 10. For 1967-68, the median figure is $10,235. Salaries in High er Edu- cation, 1967-68, Research Report 1968-R7, p. 9. 7 NEA Research Report 1966-R2, p. 10. TABLE 5 MEDIAN A NUAL SALARY BY LENGTH OF CoNTRACT, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) LENGTH OF CoNTRACT 9-10 month 11-12 month Total Base . Per Cent 13.9 86.1 100.0 2,164 TOTAL Median Salary $7,595 7,964 $7,919° 0 Median for those reporting length of contract. MEN Per Cent 11.6 88.4 100.0 792 Median Salary $8,700 9,020 $8,991° Per Cent 15.2 84.8 100.0 1,372 WoMEN Median Salary $7,250 7,475 $7,451° 106 I College & Research Libraries • March 1969 Among the academic librarians sur- veyed here one year later (differences in reporting date, length of contract, etc., should continue to be recalled) , the median salary for women is $7,455, compared to $8,990 for the men. Thus, median salaries of academic faculty and of academic librarians correspond much more closely when men and women are considered separately than when each professional group is considered in the aggregate. Nearly two-thirds of all academic li- brarians are women. In conh·ast, almost four-fifths of all faculty positions are held by men. Since women's salaries tend generally to be lower than those of men ii' all professions, the dispropor- tionately high representation of women among librarians, and the disproportion- ately low representation of women among other faculty, serves to intensify the salary differential between librar- ians and other faculty when contrasted to one another as aggregate groups. FACULTY RANK The median salary of $8,260 for li- brarians who hold faculty rank is higher than the median salary of $7,537 for li- brarians without faculty rank (Table 6). The corresponding figure for those with the rank of instructor ( $7,250) is in turn, however, somewhat less. Beginning at the level of assistant professor, median salary rises with rank to $12,370 for those who are full professors. Other survey data show that there is a strong association between formal teaching activities and faculty rank. It is not unexpected to find, therefore, that those librarians who teach formal courses tend to earn more than those who do not. The median salary for the former group is $9,230, while the medi- an salary for those with no fonnal teach- ing responsibilities (this group consti- tutes 86 per cent of 2,153 individuals reporting salary) is $7,7 45. In The Academic Marketplace, Cap- low and McGee point to an interesting paradox. They claim that For most members of the teaching profes- sion, the real strain in the academic role arises from the fact that they are, in es- sence, paid to do one job, whereas the worth of their services is evaluated on th e basis of how well they do another. . . . Most professors contract to perform teach- ing services .... When they are evaluated, however, either as candidates for a vacant position, or as candidates for promotion, the evaluation is made principally in terms of TABLE 6 MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY BY FACULTY RANK, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) TOTAL MEN WoMEN P e r Media n P e r M edian P er Median F ACULTY RANK C ent Salary C ent Salary Cent Salary Without Rank 49.2 $ 7,537 45.6 $ 8,730 51.3 $7,285 With Rank 50 .8 8,260 54.4 9,220 48.7 7,815 Instructor 20.8 7,250 16.6 7,540 23.3 7,130 Asst. Professor 16.5 8,765 18.8 9,160 15.1 8,535 Assoc. Professor 6.9 10,360 8.5 11,270 6.0 9,445 Professor 4.5 12,730 Has Rank, but 8.9 14,330 1.9 9,750 not Specified 0 2.1 7,750 1.6 9,000 2.4 7,333 Total 100.0 $ 7,93lt 100.0 $ 8,983 t 100.0 $7.460t Base 2,157 799 1,358 0 Includes L ecturers. t M edi a n for thos e re portin g rank. l their research contributions to their disci- plines. 8 It seen1s particularly ironic, therefore, to note that although librarians are em- ployed to perform library services, they seem to be evaluated, at least where salary or rank is concerned, on the ba- sis of their formal teaching activities. Some institutions have begun to take more seriously the librarian's education- al role, to recognize the importance of this role regardless of formal classroom teaching responsibilities , and to bring librarians' salaries more closely into line with other faculty salaries. In some cases this recognition has resulted in part from the strong position taken by librarians themselves. At the City University of New York, where professional librarians have full faculty status, including facul- ty titles and salaries, 9 the " ... first li- brary rank now carries the title Instruc- tor with a salary range from $8,100 to $11,950." Even here, however, where li- brarians are "entitled to sabbatical leave, and all the other benefits and respon- sibilities of faculty membership," they are not entitled to equal annual vaca- tion.10 8 Theodore Caplow and Reece } . . McGee, The . Aca- d emic Marketplace (New York: Basic Books;' Inc., 1958), p. 82. 9 " Librarians Get Faculty Status at City University o f New York," Library Journal , XCI (January 15, 1966), 219. 1 0 Ibid., 220. Academic Librarians' Salaries I 107 AcE Table 7 shows that median salary by age reaches a high point of $8,700 for those who are in their forties, drops off to $8,375 for those who are in their fifties, and increases slightly to $8,499 for those who are sixty and over. Thus, when all respondents are taken togeth- er, it appears that those who are in their forties tend to earn higher salaries than those who are older. Upon closer examination, however, it will be seen that a somewhat different pattern emerges when men and women are con- sidered separately. Among men, for example, the median salary is $9,999 for those in their forties, but it rises to $10,280 for those in their fifties, and to $10,750 for those who are sixty and over. The corresponding fig- ures for women are $7,790, $8,025, and $8,150. Thus, median salary rises with age for both groups. Women tend to earn less than men at any eorrespond- ing age level, however, and salary dif- ferentials between men and women in- crease with age. For those under thirty, the differential in median salary be- tween men and women is $255, where- as for those who are sixty and over, the median salary differential is $2,600. The disproportionately high representation of women and the disproportionately low representation of men in the upper age TABLE 7 MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY BY AGE, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) TOTAL MEN Per Median Per Median AGE (YEARS) Cent Salary Cent Salary WoMEN Per Median Cent Salary Under 30 . 15.1 $6,785 11.3 $ 6,965 30-39 . 24.2 7,890 35.0 8,345 40-49 . 24.2 8,700 30.0 9,999 50-59 . 24.7 8,375 17.9 10,280 60 and over 11.8 8,499 5.8 10,750 17.3 $6,710 17.9 7,395 20.8 7,790 28.6 8,025 15.4 8,150 Total 100.0 $7,925° 100.0 $ 8,991° 100.0 $7,455° Base . 2,172 799 1,373 0 Median for those reporting age. 108 I College & R esearch L ibraries • March 1969 brackets are also factors which influence median salaries by age where men and women are considered in the aggregate. PROFESSIONAL ExPERIENCE Several previous studies have suggest- ed that salaries of academic librarians do not keep pace with experience. Ran- dall found among college librarians over thirty years ago, for example, that "in the group as a whole, there is no signifi- cant relationship between length of ex- perience and salary."11 More recently Morrison reported that "length of ex- perience as reflected in the age of li- brarians at the time of the survey is vjrtually unrelated to salary."12 While beginning salaries of recent library school graduates have been rising stead- ily, particular concern has been ex- pressed about whether salaries increase thereafter with professional experi- ence. 13 Many respondents to the present study were similarly concerned and considered this a question of direct self- 11 Perry D . Morrison , " The C areer of the Academic Librarian" (unpublished PhD di ssertation , University of California, 1961 ) , p. 403 . 1 2 William M. Randall, The College Library; A D e- scriptive Study of t he Four-Year Liberal A rts Colleges in the United States ( Chicago : American Libra ry As- sociation and the University of Chicago Press, 1932 ) , p. 62 . 13 See, for example, John Weatherford, " The Price of Obsolescence," Library Jou rnal, XCI ( March 1, 1966) , 1182. interest. One of them, a woman depart- ment head with a professional degree and twenty-five years of professional ex- perience, whose annual salary is just over $9,000, wrote: A lot more attention needs to be paid to the economic status of professional li- brarians, particularly to that of people like me, in the middle group between the be- ginners and the administrators . . .. The survey findings appear to support the legitimacy of this claim, but in sev- eral respects the results are rather sur- prising. Experience does pay, but just how much it pays depends on who is being described (Table 8). While the findings indicate a direct relationship between experience and salary, this relationship is stronger for the men than for the women. The median salary for all re- spondents rises from $6,940 for those with less than five years of professional experience to $9,205 for those with twenty or more years of professional ex- perience. Among men, however, the fig- ures are $7,330 and $12,570, respective- ly, compared to $6,750 and $8,745 for the women. Salary differentials between men and women may be due in some measure to their differing educational qualifications. TABLE 8 MEDI A ANNUAL S ALARY BY NUMBER OF YEARS PROF ES SION AL EXPERIEN CE, B Y S EX (PE R C E NT DISTRIBUTION ) NuM BER OF YEARS TOTAL MEN WoMEN PROFESSIONAL P er Median Per Median P er M edi an EXPERIENCE Cent Salary Cent Salary Cent Salary Under 5 33.0 $6,940 35.5 $ 7,330 31.6 $6,750 5-9 20.2 7,965 23.0 8,950 18.6 7 ,465 10-14 14.3 8,930 17.2 10,235 12.6 8,080 15-19 11.6 8,955 11.7 10,750 11.6 8,275 20 and over 20 .8 9,205 12.6 12,570 25.6 8,745 Total 99.9 $7,920° 100.0 $ 8,975° 100.0 $7,455° Base . 2, 155 795 1,360 0 Median for those reporting years of professional exp erien ce. Academic Librarians' Salaries I 109 TABLE 9 RESPONDENTS WITH FIFTH YEAR MLS AS HIGHEST LIBRARY DEGREE AND NoN-LIBRARY BACHELOR's AS HIGHEST "OTHER" DEGREE-MEDIAN ANNUAL SALARY ( 11-12 Mo.) BY NuMBER OF YEARS PROFESSIONAL ExPERIENCE, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) NuMBER OF YEARS TOTAL PROFESSIONAL Per Median ExPERIENCE Cent Salary Under 2 19.2 $6,660 2-4 28.2 7,235 Under 5 0 47.4 6,986 5-9 26.6 8,090 10 or over 26.0 9,070 Total 100.0 $7,515 Base 0 854 Among the men, for example, 87 per cent have at least the first professional library degree compared to 82 per cent of the women; and about one-third of the men, compared to one-fifth of the women, hold graduate degrees in other fields. While it was not possible to ex- amine the ·salaries of men and women by every possible combination of pro- fessional and academic degree, that par- ticular combination of degrees which was held most typically was selected for such analysis. Table 9 shows median salary by years of professional experi- ence for those with a master's degree in library science and a non-library bache- lor's degree. In order to eliminate the possible distorting effect on salary of the 9--10 month contract, Table 9 considers those on 11-12 month contract only. This table shows that among those with the educational qualifications de- fined above, salaries increase with pro- fessional experience. Furthermore, men whose highest degree is the fifth-year master's in library science are likely to receive substantially higher rewards for experience than women with the equiv- alent education. Median salary differen- tials exist between men and women at all levels of experience; but here again, the gap in median salaries between the two groups widens as experience in- creases. MEN WoMEN Per Median Per Median Cent Salary Cent Salary 15.5 $ 6,825 21.5 $6,605 26.7 7,565 29.1 7,125 42.2 7,250 50.6 6,877 29.5 8,770 24.8 7,680 28.3 10,165 24.6 8,525 100.0 $ 8,345 100.0 $7,270 329 525 It is small wonder then, that women tend also to be more dissatisfied with their salaries as their experience in- creases, while among men the level of satisfaction with salary varies only slight- ly at each of several levels of experi- ence (Table 10). It is also worth not- ing, however, that a large proportion of men ( 46.2 per cent) as well as women ( 49.3 per cent) considered that they were inadequately compensated for ex- perience. In the light of other survey data which show that only 11 per cent are dissatisfied with their library careers generally, dissatisfaction with salary seems particularly widespread. EDUCATION Over 98 per cent of all the respond- ents have at least a bachelor's degree; five-sixths have at least the first profes- 0 sional library degree; and one-quarter hold .advanced degrees in other fields, generally in combination with their li- brary training. Altogether, nearly nine out of ten academic librarians hold either a professional library degree, a graduate degree in another field, or both. Table 11 shows that median salary rises as the length of professional study increases. Caution must be urged in in- terpreting the specific figures however; 110 I College & R esearch Libraries • March 1969 TABLE 10 OPINION oF SALARY BY NuMBER OF YEARS PROFESSIONAL ExPERIE cE, BY SEX 0 (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) NuMBER YEARS PROFESSIONAL ExPERIENCE Under 5-14 CoNSIDERS SALARY T otal 5 Yrs. Yrs. ADEQUATE Per Cent Per Cent Per Cent All Respondents 51.9 58.8 49.9 Yes No 48.1 41.2 50.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Base 2,129 709 738 Men Yes 53.8 55.0 51.9 No 46.2 45.0 48.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Base 796 280 322 W omen Yes 50.7 61.3 48.3 No 49.3 38.7 51.7 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 Base 1,333 429 416 15 Yrs. &Over P er Cent 46.8 53.2 100.0 682 55.2 44.8 100.0 194 43.4 56.6 100.0 488 0 The qu es ti onnaire item on ·whi ch this t able is based, r ead: " Relative to your professional experi en ce, do you cons ide r you r salary a d equ a te?" TABLE 11 MEDIA ANNUAL SALARY BY HIGHEST PROFESSIONAL LIBRARY DEGREE, BY SEX (PER CENT DISTRIBUTION) TOTAL MEN "VOMEN HIGHEST PROFESSIONAL Per Median P er Median P er Median LIBRARY DEGREE Cent Salary Cent Salary Cen t Salary Nonet 16.4 $ 6,905 12.8 $ 7,800 18.5 $6,695 First Professional D egree 77.4 7,980 80.7 8,920 75.5 7,495 Fifth Yr. Bachelor's in L.S. 17.7 8,585 10.8 11,130 21.7 8,265 Fifth Yr. Master's in L.S. 59.7 7,775 69.8 8,710 53.8 7,315 Second Professional Degree ( Sixth Yr. Master's in L.S. ) 5.5 9,940 4.8 11,670 5. 8 9,390 Doctorate in L.S. .8 15,600 1.8 0 .2 0 Total 100.0 $ 7,920 t 100.0 $ 8,999t 100.0 $7,455 t Base . 2,165 796 1,369 0 Median not calculated. t M edian for those reporting highest library degree. t This ca tegory includes the undergraduate degree in library science. first, because the present library degree structure differs from that which pre- vailed earlier, and particular degree labels therefore represent particular lev- els of experience .as well as levels of training; and second, because some por- tion of the respondents in each category hold other advanced degrees in com- bination with their professional degrees, and this additional training may affect the salary figures. '