ARL Salary Survey: U.S. Academic Librarians’ Salaries Up 1.5 Percent

The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) released its annual salary survey today which showed academic librarians' salaries in 2010-2011 increased 1.5 percent in the United States and two percent in Canada.

In its ARL Annual Salary Survey 2010-2011, the organization reports that the median salary for U.S. ARL university libraries in 2010-2011 was $65,000, up from $64,069 in 2009-2010. Though a greater percentage increase than the previous year, when median salaries rose .6 percent, it is the second-smallest percentage increase since at least before 1980, the earliest year provided in the report.

Among ARL's 18 Canadian academic members, median salaries increased even more, to $82,251 Canadian ($79,972 U.S.), up from $80,654 Canadian ($78,419 U.S.), but it is still the smallest percentage increase since 2005, when salaries decreased by .3 percent. Both the U.S. and Canadian increases, however, were greater than consumer price index increases during the same time period.

The ARL counts 115 university and 10 non-university research libraries in North America as members.

Salary increases were greatest among ARL's non-university research libraries, with an increase in median salary of 11.5 percent. The highest median salary reported at an ARL library was the Library of Congress's, at $103,872 for 2010-2011, up from $101,476 the previous year.

Among other statistics, the report also showed that more than 62 percent of U.S. ARL university librarians were women, but that their average salaries were nearly five percent less than their male colleagues'. The report also found that just 14.2 percent of professional staff at U.S. ARL libraries were minorities.

The ARL also announced the release of a separate report today, ARL Statistics 2009-2010, which tracks ARL library expenditures. ARL libraries spent slightly more than $4.2 billion in 2009-2010, with about $3.2 billion spent by university libraries, the ARL said in its announcement.