From this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education:  Highest-Paid Professors Are in Law and Business, by Audrey Williams June:

The average salary of college faculty members rose 4% this year, according to a survey by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

Law professors had, for the most part, the highest average pay, no matter what their status or where they worked. Full professors of law earned an average of $129,527 in 2007-8; associate professors earned $94,444, on average. Assistant professors of law earned an average of $79,684, a figure that was topped only by business professors at the same level, the survey found. Law professors were the top earners as instructors, with an average salary of $63,174.

Other disciplines that commanded high salaries were engineering and business. Average salaries for full professors in those disciplines were $107,134 and $102,965, respectively. Among new assistant professors, those in business had the highest average salary, at $86,640. Their average pay topped that of their counterparts in law by about $7,700. …

The salary information included in the CUPA-HR survey was reported by 838 public and private institutions and covers about 211,400 faculty members.

See also today’s Inside Higher Ed:  Faculty Salaries Up 4%, by Scott Jaschik.