Adjunct biology professor pay per course
From real biology adjunct and lecturer postings across U.S. colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · biology
- $3,500
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $2,182 – $6,303
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $910 – $15,000
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 77
Based on 134 listings that disclose per-course pay.
Highest-paying institutions
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay biology listings.
- Keck Graduate Institute$15,000n=8
- University of California-Santa Cruz$11,576n=4
- Boston College$8,866n=3
- University of St Thomas$6,717n=3
- Simmons University$5,101n=6
- Mercy University$3,950n=3
- Broward College$2,491n=10
- Oakton College$1,326n=3
- Truckee Meadows Community College$1,150n=3
- City Colleges of Chicago$943n=4
By state
States with at least five disclosed-pay biology listings.
- California$11,576n=22
- Massachusetts$4,804n=28
- New York$3,950n=9
- New Jersey$3,360n=6
- Texas$2,900n=9
- Florida$2,491n=13
- Illinois$1,326n=15
Twelve-month trend
$4,000Dec 2025
$943Feb 2026
$10,356Mar 2026
$3,304Apr 2026
$2,900May 2026
$4,467Jun 2026
$4,804Jul 2026
$3,000Aug 2026
$2,521Sep 2026
$4,225Oct 2026
$2,305Nov 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 $3,500 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $14,000
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $21,000
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $42,000
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Frequently asked questions
- How much do adjunct biology professors make per course?
- Across 134 biology adjunct postings that disclose pay, the median is $3,500 per course; the middle half of listings fall between $2,182 and $6,303.
- Do online adjunct biology jobs pay less?
- Online biology listings show a median of $2,500 per course against $3,500 overall (from 9 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 $3,500 median, three courses a term over two terms is about $21,000 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.