Adjunct communications professor pay per course
From real communications adjunct and lecturer postings across U.S. colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · communications
- $3,525
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $2,214 – $6,106
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $939 – $14,031
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 71
Based on 118 listings that disclose per-course pay.
Highest-paying institutions
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay communications listings.
- California State University-Los Angeles$15,211n=5
- University of California-Santa Cruz$11,576n=5
- Bentley University$7,225n=3
- Johns Hopkins University$7,210n=3
- Governors State University$4,500n=3
- University of the Incarnate Word$4,000n=5
- Perimeter College$3,075n=4
- Sul Ross State University$2,700n=4
- Broward College$2,491n=7
- College of Southern Nevada$1,000n=4
- Cuyahoga Community College$942n=5
By state
States with at least five disclosed-pay communications listings.
- California$10,912n=18
- Massachusetts$4,914n=14
- New York$4,000n=7
- Illinois$4,000n=13
- Texas$3,200n=15
- Florida$2,491n=8
- New Jersey$1,113n=6
- Nevada$1,000n=5
- Ohio$942n=5
Twelve-month trend
$7,210Nov 2025
$2,491Jan 2026
$2,126Feb 2026
$15,211Mar 2026
$4,750Apr 2026
$946May 2026
$5,457Jun 2026
$3,250Jul 2026
$3,789Aug 2026
$4,580Sep 2026
$3,338Oct 2026
$5,525Nov 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 $3,525 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $14,100
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $21,150
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $42,300
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Frequently asked questions
- How much do adjunct communications professors make per course?
- Across 118 communications adjunct postings that disclose pay, the median is $3,525 per course; the middle half of listings fall between $2,214 and $6,106.
- Do online adjunct communications jobs pay less?
- Online communications listings show a median of $2,783 per course against $3,525 overall (from 4 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 $3,525 median, three courses a term over two terms is about $21,150 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.