Adjunct economics professor pay per course
From real economics adjunct and lecturer postings across U.S. colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · economics
- $6,088
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $3,356 – $7,806
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $2,627 – $14,585
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 14
Based on only 14 listings with disclosed pay — treat as indicative, not a benchmark.
Highest-paying institutions
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay economics listings.
Not enough listings yet.
By state
States with at least five disclosed-pay economics listings.
Not enough listings yet.
Twelve-month trend
$16,000May 2026
$2,700Jun 2026
$6,387Jul 2026
$3,996Aug 2026
$3,350Sep 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 $6,088 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $24,352
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $36,528
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $73,056
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Frequently asked questions
- How much do adjunct economics professors make per course?
- Across 14 economics adjunct postings that disclose pay, the median is $6,088 per course; the middle half of listings fall between $3,356 and $7,806.
- Do online adjunct economics jobs pay less?
- Online economics listings show a median of $2,700 per course against $6,088 overall (from 1 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 $6,088 median, three courses a term over two terms is about $36,528 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.