Education

AIGA Design Educators Salary Survey

AIGA Design Educators Salary Survey 2008 was published online in late August 2008.
View the full survey (PDF, 4.2 MB)

Compensation is reported in terms of three statistics: the 25th percentile, the median (50th percentile) and the 75th percentile. The 25th percentile represents that value which is greater than 25 percent of all values; the median that value greater than 50 percent of all values, and so on.

Salary/wages overview

Position 25th % median 75th % Number responding
Full-time design educators $48,000 $57,000 $69,000 777
Full professors $60,000 $70,800 $87,600 176
Associate professors $54,000 $60,900 $70,000 207
Assistant professors $46,000 $50,000 $57,000 231
Other full-time faculty $44,000 $49,400 $58,000 110

About the AIGA Design Educator Salary Survey
The third annual AIGA Design Educator Salary Survey is the most complete compensation data available for education professionals in the United States in the communication design disciplines.

AIGA’s commitment to this survey is one element in a broad initiative to support the design education community, through compiling data on programs and curricula; providing grants and scholarships for researchers and students; building a strong community of design educators who can maintain a vital discourse among themselves; offering a series of regional design education conferences; publishing critical thinking in Voice and through titles of the AIGA Design Press; and working with the education community to develop the standards by which college design programs will be judged.

AIGA’s success in serving the design education community depends upon the active participation of design educators, both as engaged partners in AIGA’s activities and as members. As with all AIGA activities, the energy and direction come from members themselves; AIGA simply provides a means for coordinating activities and giving voice to them. We hope that design educators will engage in our efforts to strengthen and assure the relevance of this profession well into the 21st century.