Colorado State University · American Association of University Professors

CSU Faculty Raises vs. Inflation

Compare CSU faculty’s raises to the increase in the cost of living. This tool’s “likely salary today” assumes that faculty receive the average merit raise approved by CSU’s Board of Governors each year. Individual faculty may earn a lower salary if they received lower annual raises than average. Individual faculty may earn a higher salary if they earned a promotion, received an equity pay increase, or negotiated a retention package. When our regular, merit raises fail to keep pace with inflation, equity pay increases and individual retention packages become stopgap measures that protect the standard of living of some, but not all, CSU faculty. The raise data is from CSU’s 10-Year Salary Increase Summaries; the inflation data is from the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood CPI-U.

Adjust Parameters
$45k$130k
$72,000
Starting salary
2012–132025–26
2016–17
Start year
Salary Trajectory · Likely Salary vs. Inflation Equivalent Salary
CSU Raise vs. Denver CPI
Year-by-Year Detail
Fiscal Year CSU Raise Denver CPI Real Δ Likely Salary Inflation Equiv.
Salary		 Real Value
Change ($)		 Notes

CSU raises: Average Faculty/AP raises from CSU's Office of Budgets 10-Year Salary Summaries. Individual raises may differ.

Inflation data: Year-over-year change in the Denver-Aurora-Lakewood CPI-U annual average index (BLS), calendar year mapped to the following fiscal year. The current fiscal year's figure is a forecast until BLS publishes the final annual average.