Staff Composition and Pay Equity by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
CUPA-HR’s signature surveys collect data on composition and pay equity on all higher ed administrator, faculty, professional, and staff positions. To explore trends in composition and pay equity for custom comparison groups or specific positions, subscribe to DataOnDemand.
Staff positions are generally non-exempt and do not require a college degree. These interactive graphics show composition and pay equity by gender and race/ethnicity for higher ed staff over time.
Composition of Staff by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Key Findings: People of color represent one-third of all staff, which is the largest proportion of people of color in the higher ed workforce. This makes higher ed staff the only employee group that mirrors the representation of higher ed students by race/ethnicity. Notably, people of color are best represented in the lowest-paying positions on campus. When examined by job category, service and maintenance staff have the highest representation of people of color (44%), and skilled craft staff have the least (18%). Women make up 86% of office and clerical positions and only 4% of skilled craft positions. These patterns have been consistent since 2016-17, when we first started collecting this data.
Navigating the Chart: Click the labels in the legend to select or deselect specific data in the graphic. Use the drop-down menu to select a subset of staff positions. Slide the circle side-to-side in the bar to change the year or click the “Animate All Years” button to see how percentages change over time.
Median Pay Ratios for Staff by Gender and Race/Ethnicity
Key Findings: Women’s pay ratios are at least somewhat lower than men’s pay ratios of the same race/ethnicity, a pattern that has persisted for staff since 2016-17. In addition, Black and Hispanic/Latino men’s pay is consistently lower than the pay of White men. Therefore, pay ratios for Black and Hispanic/Latina women are the lowest among all staff positions. For example, Black women have been paid $0.92 for every dollar White men were paid since 2020-21. Office and clerical staff are the only job category in which women are paid at or above pay equity.
Navigating the Chart: Use the drop-down menu to select a subset of staff positions. Slide the circle side-to-side in the bar to change the year or click the “Animate All Years” button to see how percentages change over time.
Methodology
Data were collected in CUPA-HR’s Staff in Higher Education Survey with an effective date of November 1 of each academic year. (For these charts, the academic year is denoted with the last part of the year, e.g., 2024 is academic year 2023-24). Analyses include only non-profit institutions of higher education; each year of all-staff data includes data from at least 640 colleges and universities and at least 133,103 staff.
Median pay ratios control for position. Median salaries by race/ethnicity and sex for each staff position were obtained; then the median of those medians was calculated by race/ethnicity and sex. Finally, each group’s median salary was divided by the median salary of White men to calculate the pay ratio. This controls for the fact that women and people of color may be represented differently in specific positions that pay higher or lower salaries, and it means that the wage gaps present are not explained by the fact that women or people of color may have greater representation in lower-paying positions.