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Report On The Latest National
Epidemiology Salary Survey
By the University of Pennsylvania’s
Harvey Feldman, Glen Laferty, and Lisbeth Dennis
Today we share with
readers the latest results of an innovative collaboration between The
Epidemiology Monitor and the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and
Biostatistics (CCEB) at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman
School of Medicine. Now in its third year of partnership with this
publication, the national survey of faculty salaries—designed to help
leaders in departments of epidemiology and preventive medicine
identify and promote competitive compensation for faculty
members—continues to be an important and effective tool used to gather
these data.
As noted in the chart
that accompanies this article, the survey returned salary data for 693
individuals from 35 institutions—compared with 594 and 32,
respectively, in 2018. This represents a 17% increase in individuals
and a 9% increase in responding institutions.
The CCEB began the
survey more than 20 years ago, soliciting data each year from across
the nation to fill a need among its peers: There was no national
survey of faculty salaries that could help leaders in departments of
epidemiology and preventive medicine identify and promote competitive
compensation for faculty members. Though individual institutions had
been publishing salary ranges for epidemiology positions in their own
departments, there was no national yardstick available.
Evolving and
Improving
Along the way, the survey has continually improved its
approach—first by modeling it on the popular, sophisticated tool that
the American Statistical Association has long provided for the closely
related field of biostatistics, then by distinguishing tenured from
non-tenured positions and pegging salaries to the number of years a
faculty member had spent at a particular rank. (Readers should note
that when faculty members change jobs, results may vary: They may
report their status by the total years spent at a particular rank, or
they may appear in the 0-to-1 range at the new institution.) Starting
with the 2016 data, The Epidemiology Monitor has played an essential
role by rendering the data anonymous before sharing it with the CCEB.
Latest Survey
For the latest survey,
partners reached out to epidemiology chairs across country to inform
the questions. Though the report will not serve as the sole basis for
decision-making, it can nonetheless add a useful perspective for
assessing academic faculty salary levels in epidemiology. The data
provide key bench-marking for faculty salaries, which cannot be
obtained by looking more globally, one respondent remarked.
Future Surveys, Even
Bigger Aims
The
CCEB and The Epidemiology Monitor aim to continue to nationalize the
survey; the ultimate goal is to provide the field of epidemiology with
an industry standard that can more directly inform salary levels and
that reflects national trends. With continuing improvements, the
survey team looks forward to gaining even more respondents and
gathering a more robust data set. Work on the next survey will begin
in fall 2020, when epidemiology department chairs will receive a
request for data. Department chairs who would like to join the
survey should contact The Epidemiology Monitor
<editor@epimonitor.net>.
Stay tuned for more information, as the survey
continues to evolve.
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