Adjunct education professor pay per course
From real education adjunct and lecturer postings across U.S. colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · education
- $3,728
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $2,659 – $5,949
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $743 – $14,523
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 69
Based on 118 listings that disclose per-course pay.
Highest-paying institutions
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay education listings.
- California State University-Los Angeles$15,211n=4
- California State University-Fresno$14,523n=5
- Edmonds College$6,387n=6
- University of Colorado Denver$5,125n=3
- UMass Global$3,856n=3
- University of North Texas System$3,500n=3
- Governors State University$3,300n=11
- Ball State University$3,000n=3
- Cuyahoga Community College$942n=3
By state
States with at least five disclosed-pay education listings.
- California$12,405n=18
- Washington$6,387n=8
- Massachusetts$4,700n=12
- New York$4,500n=10
- New Jersey$4,215n=5
- Colorado$3,900n=7
- Illinois$3,300n=21
- Texas$3,200n=9
Twelve-month trend
$2,925Nov 2025
$7,562Mar 2026
$3,300Apr 2026
$942May 2026
$3,856Jun 2026
$3,573Jul 2026
$3,401Aug 2026
$4,000Sep 2026
$3,300Oct 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 $3,728 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $14,912
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $22,368
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $44,736
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Frequently asked questions
- How much do adjunct education professors make per course?
- Across 118 education adjunct postings that disclose pay, the median is $3,728 per course; the middle half of listings fall between $2,659 and $5,949.
- Do online adjunct education jobs pay less?
- Online education listings show a median of $3,856 per course against $3,728 overall (from 5 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 $3,728 median, three courses a term over two terms is about $22,368 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.