A new report from the American Association of University Professors finds that faculty salary growth is not keeping pace with inflation and that the pay gap between instructors and administrators is widening. While average full-time faculty salaries rose 2.3% from fall 2024 to fall 2025, CPI inflation rose 2.7%, reducing real purchasing power. The report says average full-time salaries remain about 9.5% below fall 2019 levels and about 5.8% below fall 2008 levels. It characterizes the findings as “sobering,” tying stagnation to declines in public funding, enrollment pressures, and increases in noninstructional costs. The impact is likely to be uneven across institution types, but the dynamics affect bargaining leverage, retention, and the long-term capacity of faculty to support teaching and student success. For university leaders, the figures add pressure to treat faculty compensation as part of broader institutional sustainability, not as a short-term budget line.