Dive Brief:
- The annual salaries for most of the heads of higher education trade associations are at least as high as the median university president salary, which was $400,000 for the 2012-13 school year.
- The highest paid of the 48 association heads tracked by Inside Higher Ed was the NCAA’s Mark Emmert, at $1.7 million for 2012-13. No. 2 was Michael Lomax, who earned more than $1.4 million as head of the United Negro College Fund.
- The median annual compensation of higher ed associations with annual revenues of less than $5 million was $260,000, compared to an average of $226,000 for trade associations of similar size.
Dive Insight:
For higher ed associations with annual budgets of $5 million to $25 million, the chief executive pay was “tens of thousands” of dollars less than other similar-sized trade associations, Inside Higher Ed reported. The publication got the salary information from tax filings for the 48 members of Washington Higher Education Secretariat, a group that includes the American Council on Education, the Association of American Universities, and the American Association of University Professors. The lowest paid of the 48: the Rev. Gregory Lucey, who was head of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities — he was paid no salary, plus $37,000 for living and personal expenses, because he had taken a vow of poverty.