I taught at a Big Ten school and it's not the profs salaries that are out of control, it's the addition of administrative, non-teaching people, most of whom are high salaried. Some part of that administrative burden falls out of federal regulations (e.g., monitoring student privacy, grant documentation, etc.), and part just because of empire building. That is, your prestige on campus is a function of the number of people who work for you.
Before you make blanket statements like the one above, check out the rate of change in teaching salaries, both total and average, and compare it to admin salaries.
+1
“....check out the rate of change in teaching salaries, both total and average, and compare it to admin salaries.”
Yep...yep.
Admin. (meetings, meetings, and more meetings) salaries are easily into the six figures while the lowly (in the trenches) teacher is fortunate to see 50k before nearing retirement.
Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.