Adjunct professor pay in California, per course
From real adjunct and lecturer postings at California colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · California
- $9,552
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $3,500 – $14,523
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $2,281 – $15,211
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 31
Based on 331 listings that disclose per-course pay.
Community colleges in California: median $3,108 per course (n=51); all institutions: $9,552.
Highest-paying institutions in California
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay listings.
- California State University-Los Angeles$15,211n=45
- Keck Graduate Institute$15,000n=10
- California State University-Fresno$14,523n=18
- Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo$14,523n=3
- University of California-Santa Cruz$12,281n=59
- Santa Clara University$9,933n=37
- Saint Mary's College of California$8,590n=6
- Samuel Merritt University$8,000n=14
- California State University-Monterey Bay$7,465n=19
- University of California-Riverside$6,850n=12
- University of California-Santa Barbara$3,500n=11
By discipline
Disciplines with at least five disclosed-pay listings in California.
- English & Writing$14,523n=9
- Humanities$13,420n=17
- Education & Teaching$12,405n=18
- Physics$12,281n=5
- Communications & Media$11,576n=15
- Biology & Life Sciences$11,576n=21
- Agriculture & Environmental Science$11,239n=14
- Engineering$10,948n=17
- Music & Performing Arts$10,912n=18
- Accounting & Finance$10,230n=8
- Business & Management$10,200n=21
- Computer Science & IT$10,082n=10
- History$9,986n=9
- World Languages$9,390n=12
- Psychology$8,509n=10
Twelve-month trend
$3,615Dec 2025
$3,724Feb 2026
$15,211Mar 2026
$3,500Apr 2026
$10,230May 2026
$11,576Jun 2026
$8,000Jul 2026
$8,000Aug 2026
$7,465Sep 2026
$4,585Oct 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 $9,552 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $38,208
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $57,312
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $114,624
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load 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.