Salaries: Disciplinary Differences and Rank Injustices

How great are salary differences by discipline and rank? Have they been increasing or decreasing? What patterns of levels and changes in differences produce more or less dissatisfaction? Why even worry about these differences? My initial bias in answering all these questions is merely to inquire about the size of the differences and to accept the narrowest perspective of my discipline (economics): that the existing salaries reflect market valuations of individuals' productivity and that those individuals and fields with the highest salaries are most valuable to society. According to this perspective, complaints should be ignored, as the market is working well. This ideology sits well with high-paid faculty, including economists. It is anathema to academics in relatively low-paying fields. Even a market-oriented economist, though, may acknowledge good reasons to view a pure market solution as inappropriate and may seek ways of reducing divisive dissatisfaction with salary differences. salary differences within the oc-