Statistical Issues Arising in Faculty Salary Equity Analyses

Music City Center 

Faculty salary equity studies are routinely conducted to examine whether there are significant differences (statistical and/or practical) associated with gender and race/ethnicity at the institutional level or at finer scales (divisions, departments or other units/categories). There are a number of statistical issues that we highlight in planning such studies from data availability and quality, choice of relevant populations to aspects regarding the choice of models such as which variables to include, transformations of variables, interactions, and treatment of outliers, among others.