Academic Administrator Salary: What the Job Pays
Running an academic unit: programme director, department chair, associate dean, dean.
Last updated
- Median
- $104,590
- Bottom 10%
- $64,560
- Top 10%
- $215,620
- Employed
- 180,470
What an Academic Administrator Earns
The national median is $104,590. Half of everyone in this occupation earns between $80,870 and $144,370, and the full published range runs from $64,560 at the tenth percentile to $215,620 at the ninetieth. The occupation employs 180,470 people.
A median is a midpoint, not an offer, and this occupation's range is wide for a specific reason. Seniority within the institution, and the institution's size. A programme director and a dean are the same occupation to the wage survey. Public and private institutions also diverge sharply at the top of this range, which is why the spread widens so much above the median.
So the number to plan around is not the median. It is the quartile you can realistically reach given the setting you would work in, which for this occupation is the variable that moves pay most.
How a DHSc Degree Affects Academic Administrator Pay
Academic administration is where a terminal degree stops being optional. Programme director and dean postings in health sciences commonly screen for a doctorate, which makes this one of the clearest cases where a DHSc changes what you are eligible for rather than just improving your odds.
The Full Pay Range for Education Administrators, Postsecondary
Five percentiles and a mean, which is everything the wage survey publishes for this occupation nationally.
| Point in the Range | Annual Pay | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $64,560 | Nine in ten earn more than this |
| 25th percentile | $80,870 | The bottom of the middle half |
| Median | $104,590 | Half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $144,370 | The top of the middle half |
| 90th percentile | $215,620 | One in ten earn more than this |
| Mean | $126,540 | The average, pulled upward by the top of the range |
The mean runs $21,950 above the median, a 21% gap, so the upper half of this occupation stretches further than the lower half. The distance from the median to the 75th percentile is $39,780, and from the 75th to the 90th another $71,250.
Where Education Administrators, Postsecondary Jobs Are
The ten states with the most jobs, which is a different list from the ten that pay best. Together they hold 50% of the 180,470 jobs nationally.
| State | Employed | Median |
|---|---|---|
| Texas | 16,660 | $104,390 |
| California | 14,870 | $125,460 |
| Illinois | 9,530 | $99,770 |
| Massachusetts | 9,120 | $128,970 |
| Pennsylvania | 8,000 | $103,740 |
| North Carolina | 7,390 | $101,060 |
| New York | 7,280 | $139,640 |
| Ohio | 6,880 | $87,370 |
| Arizona | 5,140 | $103,280 |
| Michigan | 5,110 | $108,500 |
Employment and pay do not line up. A state can hold a large share of the jobs and pay near the national median, and a small state can top the pay table on a few hundred posts. Read the two tables together: the first tells you what the work pays, the second tells you where the work is.
Education Administrators, Postsecondary Pay by State
Every state and territory that publishes a median for this occupation, highest first.
| State | Median | Bottom 10% | Top 10% | Employed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $139,640 | $87,240 | $278,010 | 7,280 |
| New Jersey | $131,570 | $84,060 | $224,550 | 4,100 |
| Massachusetts | $128,970 | $79,040 | $228,410 | 9,120 |
| Delaware | $128,570 | $82,640 | $331,850 | 360 |
| Wyoming | $127,960 | $85,770 | $174,170 | 120 |
| Washington | $127,630 | $85,770 | $220,610 | 2,140 |
| South Dakota | $126,160 | $86,610 | $228,660 | 240 |
| California | $125,460 | $76,700 | $216,480 | 14,870 |
| Wisconsin | $124,960 | $78,890 | $198,850 | 1,190 |
| Connecticut | $123,190 | $75,050 | $220,570 | 2,100 |
| Virginia | $120,840 | $68,000 | $234,300 | |
| Oregon | $120,110 | $75,020 | $229,730 | 2,790 |
| Maryland | $118,550 | $67,750 | $228,880 | |
| Colorado | $118,440 | $80,740 | $239,370 | 1,770 |
| Kentucky | $114,310 | $77,630 | $230,220 | 890 |
| Georgia | $110,200 | $72,910 | $230,780 | 2,890 |
| Kansas | $110,020 | $62,750 | $227,000 | 1,760 |
| New Mexico | $109,480 | $76,820 | $178,830 | 1,160 |
| Michigan | $108,500 | $62,420 | $236,640 | 5,110 |
| District of Columbia | $107,390 | $77,260 | $246,220 | 1,880 |
| Rhode Island | $106,520 | $75,370 | $216,270 | 1,140 |
| Oklahoma | $105,830 | $59,390 | $231,490 | 1,700 |
| Minnesota | $104,740 | $78,140 | $176,270 | 2,110 |
| Missouri | $104,560 | $63,110 | $213,740 | 2,830 |
| Vermont | $104,450 | $68,530 | $226,460 | 550 |
| Texas | $104,390 | $66,860 | $215,450 | 16,660 |
| New Hampshire | $104,190 | $75,830 | $213,310 | 920 |
| Pennsylvania | $103,740 | $71,150 | $209,530 | 8,000 |
| Arizona | $103,280 | $65,300 | $213,610 | 5,140 |
| Alaska | $103,080 | $74,820 | $155,670 | 80 |
| Montana | $102,980 | $66,940 | $174,190 | 300 |
| North Dakota | $101,600 | $64,420 | $233,160 | 600 |
| Idaho | $101,200 | $62,260 | $169,370 | 870 |
| North Carolina | $101,060 | $64,490 | $185,140 | 7,390 |
| Tennessee | $100,850 | $65,000 | $224,710 | 2,680 |
| Utah | $100,420 | $50,670 | $218,010 | 2,320 |
| Alabama | $100,030 | $62,570 | $211,370 | 3,760 |
| Illinois | $99,770 | $62,270 | $172,540 | 9,530 |
| Louisiana | $98,840 | $61,880 | $214,270 | 3,670 |
| Indiana | $98,000 | $61,030 | $213,580 | 3,370 |
| Nebraska | $96,030 | $61,520 | $215,130 | 1,560 |
| South Carolina | $95,570 | $60,190 | $177,740 | 2,990 |
| Iowa | $89,320 | $59,960 | $174,270 | 2,510 |
| Nevada | $88,810 | $60,950 | $176,730 | 1,320 |
| Maine | $88,180 | $63,360 | $178,200 | 860 |
| Ohio | $87,370 | $59,990 | $177,930 | 6,880 |
| Mississippi | $86,590 | $50,590 | $219,180 | 2,230 |
| West Virginia | $84,660 | $53,160 | $198,330 | 1,520 |
| Florida | $83,840 | $63,240 | $153,610 | |
| Hawaii | $81,020 | $37,340 | $133,560 | 570 |
| Arkansas | $78,240 | $51,910 | $166,240 | 1,970 |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. 51 states and territories publish a median for this occupation. A blank cell means BLS suppressed that figure.
State medians are not adjusted for cost of living here, and you should not read them as though they were. New York leads at $139,640 and Arkansas sits at $78,240, but a good deal of that gap is housing rather than spending power. Compare a state figure against local costs before treating it as a reason to move.
Compare Academic Administrator Pay With Other DHSc Degree Careers
Every occupation this site tracks, by median. The group column matters: a destination role is one the doctorate moves you into, and an origin role is work DHSc students were already doing before they enrolled, so its pay is not a return on the degree.
| Occupation | Median | Middle Half | Employed | Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Physician Assistants | $135,880 | $120,670 to $163,980 | 162,150 | Origin |
| Medical and Health Services Managers | $123,860 | $94,700 to $166,100 | 597,080 | Destination |
| Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary | $107,310 | $75,690 to $210,370 | 221,270 | Destination |
| Education Administrators, Postsecondary | $104,590 | $80,870 to $144,370 | 180,470 | Destination |
| Physical Therapists | $102,760 | $86,160 to $121,160 | 267,330 | Origin |
| Occupational Therapists | $100,330 | $82,510 to $116,670 | 162,450 | Origin |
| Health Education Specialists | $64,070 | $50,620 to $87,130 | 65,690 | Destination |
Sources for Academic Administrator Salary Data
Pay figures come from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics extract behind this site. Projections are not in that dataset and are cited to O*NET separately.
- O*NET OnLine: Education Administrators, Postsecondary O*NET OnLine, U.S. Department of Labor, median pay and the 2024 to 2034 employment projection for this occupation.
- the Education Department on how accreditation works U.S. Department of Education, the Department recognises accrediting agencies rather than accrediting schools itself.