Based on available data from Foster, AACSB, and AAUDE the ratio of full to rookie salary for “average” performers is approximately 125%. There are many reasons why it might be problematic to implement a policy that sets the school on a trajectory that is much steeper.

The following graph, which Jack Lee (Senate Salary Committee) generated, shows our salaries under the Senate proposal (in blue) relative to those of our peers (in red). Jack concludes that the default formulas would result in career salary growth that would be substantially above what is currently observed among peers and likely requires adjustments for Foster. Note that differently from the graph that we have shown Jack’s graph does not include inflation, or said differently, the calculations are done under the assumption that inflation is zero.

Jack also states in a separate email to us that “it is unclear how and when the university administration would respond to Foster adopting the infeasible default Senate proposal.” He does expect, though, “that the president would respond by establishing new default formulas, for example taking into account peer averages, which would have the effect of lowering the Foster School raises to something much more like what you see at peers.”