US librarian salaries lag inflation, says survey

A survey of librarian salaries amongst Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members has revealed that Canadian ARL librarians’ salaries kept pace with inflation, but US ARL librarians’ salaries did not.

According to the 2012-2013 salary data, which was gathered on 10,072 professional staff in the 115 university ARL libraries and 3,823 professional staff in the 10 non-university ARL libraries, the median salary for US ARL university libraries in 2012 was $67,257. This was an increase of 1.2 per cent over the 2011–2012 median salary of $66,467 but the US CPI rose by 1.4 per cent during the same period.

In contrast, while the Canadian CPI rose 1.3 per cent, median salaries in Canadian university libraries increased from $85,551 (Canadian dollars) to $87,120 (Canadian dollars) a rise of 1.8 per cent.

The ARL Annual Salary Survey 2012–2013 also found that gender-based salary differentials persist, with the overall salary for women in the 115 ARL university libraries is 95.9 per cent of that paid to men.