Information on our range of service to higher education institutions.

The investigation of higher education salary disparities is an intricate process requiring specific and scientific expertise. Haignere, Inc. is thoroughly familiar with the application of regression analyses to study faculty and staff salaries. Lois Haignere, president of Haignere, Inc., has conducted hundreds of faculty/staff salary analyses. With access to a wealth of higher education data sets, she has been able to explore the impact of different research methods on a range of institutional types and sizes. She has studied gender and race faculty salary disparities for many U.S. and Canadian universities and for entire state university systems in New York and Maine. She has assessed clinical and basic-science salaries at dental and medical schools.

Dr. Haignere is the primary author of Paychecks: A Guide to Conducting Salary-Equity Studies for Higher Education Faculty. Haignere, Inc. and American Association of University Professors (AAUP) have jointly revised and published this new edition, replacing the AAUP's Higher Education Salary Evaluation Kit. This guide helps those on campus understand how to detect gender and race bias, interpret the results of studies presented to them and guard against study design features that can mask bias. There are helpful examples and case studies throughout the guidebook. This edition of Paychecks is expanded to help readers detect gender bias in rank, select a salary-equity consultant, discern different perspectives on how bias occurs, and construct remedies that eliminate bias.

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Other types of higher education disparity studies

In addition to salary disparities, we have studied salary compression that occurs when the salary differential between newly hired and existing faculty is too small or is declining. When the salary differential between new hires and those hired less recently is too small, morale problems and increased turnover can result. We have experience doing compression analyses using multiple regression. In most cases the same database and variables can be used to assess both salary disparity and compression, but adjustments to the population studied are needed.

The study of salary equity is intricately intertwined with promotion and advancement. We have used categorical modeling and event history statistical techniques to assess the existence of glass ceilings and other structure or process barriers and their potential to suppress the careers and salaries of women and racial minorities.

While faculty members are commonly the focus of higher education salary disparity studies, they represent only a fraction of the employees of most postsecondary institutions. Haignere, Inc. is experienced in conducting salary studies for non-instructional higher education employees through two avenues: pay equity research consultation at five higher education institutions and equal pay studies for non-instructional higher-education staff at 30 state institutions.

Our range of services to higher education institutions

While some clients prefer to have us conduct the analyses, others prefer to have us provide as-needed consultation to salary study committees and institutional research departments or other in-house researchers. For clients who want us to conduct complete studies, we clean the data, analyze it for salary disparities and provide a full written report of the findings. Many institutions find that our thorough review of the data for inconsistencies and potential errors leaves them with a more valid and reliable database and helps them establish better ongoing data entry and cleaning processes.

For clients who prefer that we provide consultation rather than conducting the analyses, we make research design suggestions, review the computer programming and output, suggest alternative analyses and provide interpretations. If desired, we work with the parties to reach a common understanding of the results and appropriate adjustments to salaries or institutional processes. Some clients want us to provide advice, support and training to institutional research departments to assure that they have the ongoing, in-house expertise to conduct future analyses.