Professors and hamburgers: an international comparison of real academic salaries

In recent years, academic staff unions and associations have argued for hig her salaries for academics on the grounds that existing salaries have not k ept pace with inflation; are well below commercial salaries and, most glari ngly, are much lower than the salaries of their overseas counterparts. Howe ver, most international comparisons are made based on exchange rate convers ions, which is inappropriate since purchasing power differentials are only reflected in exchange rates in the long term. Furthermore, the volatility o f exchange rates make such conversions highly inaccurate. A comparison is p rovided of real academic salaries by converting the nominal salaries in eac h country to their purchasing po,ver equivalents, using the Big Mac Index. Our results show that real academic salaries are highest in Hong Kong and S ingapore, relative to the developed countries, while Hong Kong tax and soci al security deductions are lowest. Furthermore, real salary levels, combine d with intrinsic considerations such as the quality-of-life, indicate that Canada and New Zealand are unattractive places for visiting/migrating acade mics, while Australia and the USA are relatively attractive, It is suggeste d that these findings could be of use to policy-makers and academic unions in salary negotiations, as well as academics making relocation decisions.