Position Classification & Compensation

Executive Salaries

June 2019 - Results

Across the system salaries for officers and senior administrators are, on average, -6% of the market median by position. 

distribution of executive salaries market median salaries



Where we are:

  • The market analysis for executive positions is complete

What we know:

  • Overall, executive salaries are 13% below market median, resulting in compression, and potential recruiting challenges and risk of loss

Next steps:

  • Strengthen market benchmarking methodology to clarify which positions are classified as executive for institutional consistency
  • Adopt new salary range structure to include administrative guidelines for placement based on market, education, experience, and performance

Methodology and Survey Sources

UA worked with Quatt Associates to review University of Alaska peer groups for both university-specific and system-wide executive positions

Salary data was collected from the following surveys:

  • CUPA-HR Administrators in Higher Education Surveys
  • CUPA-HR Professionals in Higher Education Surveys
  • Western Management EduComp Survey
  • Economic Research Institute (ERI) Executive Compensation Assessor
  • Association of College and University Auditors Salary Survey
  • Quatt Not-for-Profit Survey

The 3% annual adjustment (aging) was applied to each survey source.

Executive Salary FAQ

We were advised by our consultants that best practices for evaluating executive positions do not generally include Cost of Labor. Many other factors go into setting executive salaries. Individual results for executives do include relative market information.

Historically, our compensation practice has been to target executive salaries at 90% of the market median. During this project we will review that practice.  

Yes, it is a best practice when assessing position descriptions to qualitatively determine if a position lies within the executive classifications.

See the attached spreadsheet for peer institutions. EXCEL FILE