Heciel Nieves Bonilla, News Editor
Andrew Kerley, Executive Editor
VCU’s payroll shows a substantial gap between the salaries of administrators and other staff. Data shows that gap has increased nationwide, and VCU salaries are consistent with those of other universities — with some notable exceptions.
The CT obtained VCU and VCU Health’s payroll for active employees as of April 2026 through a Freedom of Information Act request. It includes the salaries of 7,925 employees who make more than $10,000 per year.
The median salary earned across all listed employees at VCU and VCU Health is $74,257, and the average is $91,149.
The average salary for professors of any type is $167,984, according to an analysis by The CT. An assistant professor’s average salary was less than half that, at $82,277. The average associate professor makes $106,388.
Highest earners and administrators
Employees with “chair” in their title, such as department, division or program leads, make an average of $201,194. The average employee with “dean” in their title makes $413,750.
There is noticeable variation in the salaries deans receive. College of Humanities and Sciences dean Catherine Ingrassia is the lowest-paid at $227,150 — more than any non-admin or chair CHS faculty, but less than many faculty in other subject areas such as engineering and health. Many medical professors and other faculty earn more than any humanities faculty member.
A report by the American Association of University Professors finds that the average chief financial officer at American doctoral universities makes $423,982. Meredith Weiss is the CFO at VCU and makes $600,000, the fourth highest salary between the university and health system.
President Michael Rao’s salary is listed as $895,618 — exceeds the average by over $100,000 and the average for public schools by over $200,000. The figure is comparable to that of private university presidents, but salary is not the only compensation Rao receives from VCU. His total as of 2025 is closer to $1.4 million a year, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Rounding out the university’s highest earners are several medical faculty, including second and third-place: neurosurgery chair David Limbrick and Massey Cancer Center director Robert Winn, who make $818,000 and $800,000 respectively.
Athletics director Ed McLaughlin and men’s basketball head coach Phil Martelli both rank in the top 20 highest earners with $567,538 and $450,000 respectively — not counting benefits and bonuses for successful seasons. Martelli’s contract is worth over $1.4 million, according to the Augusta Free Press.
Lowest earners and broader trends
The top five salaries at VCU round out to over 3.6 million dollars. The top ten, 6.3 million. The top twenty, just over 11 million — more than the bottom 423 earners on the payroll.
That bottom 5% includes many assistant professors and other full-time employees but also most adjunct faculty — who often work part time and are generally the lowest-paid group of faculty. Adjunct professors are paid per class.
Employees listed in the document as “adjunct instructors” make $12,370 a year at VCU on average. Total “adjuncts” made an average of $20,364.
The gap between administrator and faculty pay increased nationwide for the third year in a row from 2025 to 2026, according to Inside Higher Ed. The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources found in March that pay for all university worker groups remains less adjusted for inflation than it was pre-pandemic.
They also found that tenure faculty continued to receive the lowest salary increase of any higher ed employee group nationally, and have not seen real-dollar salary growth in at least a decade.
The AAUP’s report from last year found that faculty have been shrinking as a percentage of the academic workforce for decades. The number of people in higher ed who neither receive nor are eligible for tenure, with its associated benefits and pay, has risen in the same period.