Adjunct art professor pay per course

From real art adjunct and lecturer postings across U.S. colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.

Median per course · art
$3,498
Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
$1,332 – $6,000
Typical range (5th–95th)
$840 – $12,612
Institutions disclosing pay
62

Based on 103 listings that disclose per-course pay.

Highest-paying institutions

Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay art listings.

By state

States with at least five disclosed-pay art listings.

Twelve-month trend

$1,400
Nov 2025
$800
Jan 2026
$2,800
Feb 2026
$11,387
Mar 2026
$2,108
Apr 2026
$2,605
May 2026
$10,912
Jun 2026
$6,000
Jul 2026
$4,215
Aug 2026
$3,749
Sep 2026
$2,521
Oct 2026
$5,436
Nov 2026

Median per-course pay of listings posted each month.

What the median means per year

Adjuncts are paid per course, so annual income depends on load. At $3,498 per course:

2 courses × 2 terms
$13,992
3 courses × 2 terms
$20,988
4 courses × 3 terms
$41,976

Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.

Frequently asked questions

How much do adjunct art professors make per course?
Across 103 art adjunct postings that disclose pay, the median is $3,498 per course; the middle half of listings fall between $1,332 and $6,000.
Do online adjunct art jobs pay less?
Online art listings show a median of $2,500 per course against $3,498 overall (from 8 online postings with disclosed pay). Institutions usually pay online and in-person sections at the same rate; the gap reflects which institutions hire online.
What would that be per year?
At the $3,498 median, three courses a term over two terms is about $20,988 before tax, with no benefits. Loads are usually capped below the level that would trigger benefits eligibility.

Where these numbers come from

  • Every figure is computed from adjunct, lecturer, and part-time faculty postings that OpenLecture tracks across 4,000+ U.S. institutions, refreshed daily. Closed listings stay in the sample, so the picture covers roughly the past year.
  • Only postings that state a per-course amount are compared. Hourly and annual quotes are reported separately and never converted.
  • Where a range is posted, the top of the range is used. Figures below $500 or above $25,000 per course are excluded as mislabelled periods.
  • Medians are shown, not averages, so a handful of outliers cannot move them. Pages with fewer than 25 disclosed-pay listings carry a warning.
  • Roughly a quarter of adjunct postings disclose pay at all; these numbers describe the institutions that do.