Twenty years of the CSU faculty salary schedule, and what a starting salary became
The salary range for an Assistant Professor (the same range as Lecturer B) and for Lecturer A at every schedule in force since July 2005, from the CSU's own salary schedule PDFs. Enter a 2005 starting salary and the tool applies each year's general salary increase to show what it became, against the inflation measure you choose and against the chancellor's base salary in the same year.
How to read this
The document shows: the minimum, service-salary-increase (SSI) maximum, and range maximum of the CSU systemwide salary schedule, class 2360 range 3 and class 2358 ranges A and B, annualized (monthly rate × 12), for every schedule date from July 1, 2005 through July 1, 2024. No general salary increase has been agreed for 2025–26 or 2026–27; the 2024 schedule is carried forward and marked.
The tool's arithmetic: the "started at" lines apply only the across-the-board general salary increases (GSI) from the CFA contracts, compounded year to year, plus the 2013 flat $960. They do not add service salary increases, promotions, equity programs, market adjustments, or the $3,000 minimum bumps of 2023 and 2024, and they do not subtract the 2009–10 furlough. Tick the SSI box to add 2.65% in each year an SSI was funded; a real person received it only if eligible and below the SSI maximum. Inflation lines multiply the same starting salary by the CPI index for the year divided by the 2005 index; the 2026 points use the latest monthly value published (U.S.: September 2026; California: June 2026).
The record does not yet establish what any individual earned. It establishes the range the contract set and the across-the-board raises everyone in the range received.
The schedule, year by year (annualized)
| Schedule year | Asst. Prof. / Lect. B min | SSI max | Max | Lecturer A min | SSI max | Max | Across-the-board action that year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | $45,156 | $56,928 | $84,912 | $37,692 | $45,156 | $50,700 | 3.5% (7/1/2005) |
| 2006 | $46,512 | $58,632 | $87,456 | $38,820 | $46,512 | $52,224 | 3% (retro 7/1/2006) |
| 2007 | $48,720 | $61,416 | $109,272 | $40,656 | $48,720 | $54,708 | 1% and 3.7% compounded (7/1/2007); maxima +20% |
| 2008 | $49,692 | $62,640 | $111,456 | $41,472 | $49,692 | $55,800 | 2% (7/1/2008); later contract raises not paid |
| 2009 | $49,692 | $62,640 | $111,456 | $41,472 | $49,692 | $55,800 | 0%; furlough of 9.23% for 2009–10 (one year) |
| 2010 | $49,716 | $62,664 | $111,504 | $41,496 | $49,716 | $55,824 | 0.045% (Aug 2010) |
| 2011 | $49,716 | $62,664 | $111,504 | $41,496 | $49,716 | $55,824 | 0% |
| 2012 | $49,716 | $62,664 | $111,504 | $41,496 | $49,716 | $55,824 | 0% |
| 2013 | $50,676 | $63,624 | $112,464 | $42,456 | $50,676 | $56,784 | $80/month flat ($960/yr), retro 7/1/2013 |
| 2014 | $51,492 | $64,644 | $114,264 | $43,140 | $51,492 | $57,696 | 1.6% (7/1/2014) |
| 2015 | $51,492 | $64,644 | $114,264 | $43,140 | $51,492 | $57,696 | 0% (CSU's 2% offer rejected) |
| 2016 | $55,152 | $69,228 | $122,376 | $46,212 | $55,152 | $61,788 | 5% (6/30/2016) and 2% (7/1/2016) |
| 2017 | $57,084 | $71,652 | $126,660 | $47,832 | $57,084 | $63,948 | 3.5% (7/1/2017); SSI 2.65% resumes |
| 2018 | $59,076 | $74,160 | $131,088 | $49,512 | $59,076 | $66,192 | 3.5% (11/1/2018) |
| 2019 | $60,552 | $76,020 | $134,364 | $50,748 | $60,552 | $67,848 | 2.5% (7/1/2019) |
| 2020 | $60,552 | $76,020 | $134,364 | $50,748 | $60,552 | $67,848 | 0% |
| 2021 | $62,976 | $79,056 | $139,740 | $52,776 | $62,976 | $70,560 | 4% (retro 7/1/2021); SSI 2.65%; $3,500 one-time |
| 2022 | $64,860 | $81,432 | $143,928 | $54,360 | $64,860 | $72,672 | 3% (7/1/2022); PPI 2.65% at SSI cap |
| 2023 | $71,100 | $85,500 | $151,128 | $60,084 | $68,100 | $76,308 | 5% (retro 7/1/2023, after the January 2024 strike); SSI 2.65%; +$3,000 Lecturer A and B minima |
| 2024 | $74,652 | $89,772 | $158,688 | $66,084 | $71,508 | $80,124 | 5% (7/1/2024); SSI 2.65%; +$3,000 Lecturer A minimum |
| 2025 | $74,652 | $89,772 | $158,688 | $66,084 | $71,508 | $80,124 | No GSI agreed; CSU proposed a one-time 3% lump sum |
| 2026 | $74,652 | $89,772 | $158,688 | $66,084 | $71,508 | $80,124 | No agreement as of Oct 31, 2026; impasse, factfinding Nov 2026; strike vote under way |
What the arithmetic shows
The document shows: the Assistant Professor minimum rose from $45,156 (July 2005) to $74,652 (July 2024), 65.3%, a figure that includes the $3,000 added to the Lecturer B minimum in 2023. Compounding only the general salary increases over the same period gives about 58%. The U.S. CPI-U annual average rose 60.6% from 2005 to 2024 and the California CPI 68.8%; through the latest 2026 readings the U.S. index is up about 72.5% and California's about 80.1% from the 2005 annual average.
The evidence suggests: a faculty member who received only the across-the-board raises since 2005 has lost ground to California prices, and the two years without a raise since July 2024 widen the gap each month the 2026–27 contract remains unsettled. The SSI, where received, closes some of that distance; it was funded in only six of the twenty-one contract years since 2005.
The record does not yet establish how much of the schedule's movement reached any given person, because the schedule sets a range, not a salary, and because SSI, promotion, equity, and market adjustments are individual.
Can a lecturer, in five minutes and from the CSU's own site, find the salary range for their classification in each year of their service and the across-the-board raise that applied to each?
Source box
- Primary documents
- CSU systemwide salary schedule PDFs, Salary Schedule documents (files SalarySchdYYYYMMDD.pdf; R03 section, class 2358 and 2360), issues of 7/19/2006, 5/18/2007, 9/7/2007, 7/9/2008, 9/10/2010, 11/15/2013, 5/29/2015, 7/15/2016, 7/18/2016, 7/18/2017, 11/8/2018, 1/17/2020, 5/11/2022, 1/4/2024, and 8/14/2024. 2023–24 rates from the Cal Poly Humboldt and San José State campus schedules (identical to 1.05 × the 2022 CSU rows plus $250/month on the Lecturer A and B minima). CSU Technical Letter HR/Salary 2007-25 (column order and 2005–2007 SSI maxima). CFA–CSU Unit 3 Collective Bargaining Agreement, Article 31 (2022–2025); CSU Bargaining Updates of July 9 and September 16, 2026; CFA bargaining and strike-authorization FAQs (September 2026).
- Chancellor salary
- CSU Board of Trustees, Committee on University and Faculty Personnel agendas and resolutions, January 2007 through July 2023, as compiled on the chancellor compensation page; the 2005 figure is Reed's pre-adjustment base ($362,500) cited in the January 2007 item. Years without a Board action carry the prior figure.
- Inflation
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U all items, U.S. city average, annual averages 2005–2025 and the September 2026 release (October 14, 2026); California Department of Industrial Relations, California CPI all urban consumers, annual averages 2005–2025 and June 2026.
- What the documents show
- The range minimum, SSI maximum, and maximum at each schedule date; the size and effective date of each general salary increase; the years in which SSI was funded.
- What the record does not yet establish
- The rows for July 1, 2023 directly from a CSU-hosted PDF (the CSU PDFs dated September 2023 and January 2024 pre-date loading of the 5%); class 2358 rows for 2010–2024 read separately from class 2360 (the ranges are shared, confirmed for 2005–2007 and by campus schedules thereafter); the exact size of the 2008–09 and 2009–10 contract raises that were never paid; whether the 2025–26 schedule PDF carries any change (none expected; the file's R03 section could not be extracted).
- Method note
- Annualized = monthly × 12. GSI factors are the contract percentages; the 2007 factor is 1.01 × 1.037. All figures were taken by text extraction from the PDFs and cross-checked year to year against the schedule itself (each year's minimum equals the prior minimum times the factor within rounding). Full notes: research/faculty-salary-schedule-2005-2026.md in Documents.
Disclosure: the author is a tenured CSU professor paid on this schedule and an officer of a California Faculty Association chapter. He writes here as an individual; the tool reports the schedule, not his pay.