Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

UMich Salary Explorer is a salary transparency tool that provides publicly available salary information for employees at the University of Michigan. This platform helps students, job seekers, researchers, and the general public understand pay trends, faculty compensation, and administrative salaries within the university system.

We are committed to public transparency and data accessibility, ensuring that salary information is easily searchable and digestible for all users.

No, UMich Salary Explorer is an independent project. We are not affiliated with the University of Michigan in any way. The data presented on this website is sourced from publicly available records, including Michigan state transparency reports and official university disclosures. For more information on our data sources, please visit our Sources page.

This project began as a University of Michigan capstone project aimed at providing salary transparency to the public. We strongly believe in open data, ensuring that Michigan residents, university employees, and job seekers have access to accurate salary information.

Our goal is to inform and empower users by providing clear, accessible insights into salary distributions at the university.

Salary data is updated annually based on the latest publicly available records. While salary figures are refreshed once a year, we actively improve the website's UI, UX, and blog posts on a weekly basis to ensure an engaging and user-friendly experience. For updates on when new salary data is released, visit our Sources page.

We source our salary data from publicly available reports, including:

• Michigan state transparency records
• University of Michigan's publicly disclosed salary reports
• Legally accessible government databases

We do not modify, alter, or manipulate the salary figures in any way. For full details, visit our Sources page.

Yes! If you notice an error or inconsistency in salary data, you can submit a correction request via our Contact Us page. Our team will verify the accuracy of the data and, if necessary, make the appropriate corrections based on the latest official records.

Currently, we only display base salaries as reported in public records. This means that additional forms of compensation—such as performance bonuses, benefits packages, or research grants—are not included in our listings. If future publicly available reports include these details, we may expand our dataset accordingly.

To find an employee's salary, simply use our search bar to look up salaries by:

• Employee Name
• Job Title
• Department

You can also sort and filter results to refine your search based on salary ranges, faculty positions, and administrative roles.

To help users quickly interpret salary data, we use a color-coded salary scale:

• Green: Salary falls within an expected or average range for the role.
• Yellow: Salary is slightly above the average for comparable roles.
• Red: Salary is significantly higher than expected for similar positions.

These colors provide an at-a-glance understanding of how salaries compare within departments and job categories.

Yes! Our platform allows you to compare salaries within specific departments, faculty groups, and administrative teams. By filtering by department or position, you can quickly identify salary trends and disparities across different university roles.

Yes, this data is 100% legal to display. Under Michigan's public records laws, salary data for public university employees is considered public information. Since the University of Michigan is a public institution, salaries of faculty, staff, and administrators are legally accessible under transparency laws. If you want more information on these legal statutes, visit our Sources page.

Since this salary data is legally considered public information, we do not remove names upon request. However, we understand privacy concerns and are happy to discuss your situation. If you are an employee and would like to request a data review, please reach out via our Contact Us page.

We strictly follow public records laws and only publish what is already publicly available. Additionally, we take privacy concerns seriously and have no intention of misusing or exaggerating any salary information. Our mission is simply to increase transparency in a respectful, factual manner. For more details on our privacy practices, please see our Privacy Policy page.

Yes! We are actively working to improve UMich Salary Explorer. In addition to salary data, we plan to explore:

• Historical salary trends (year-over-year comparisons)
• Cost of living adjustments for different faculty locations
• Department-wide pay breakdowns

If there's a feature or dataset you'd like to see, let us know via our Contact Us page!

There are several ways to support this project:

• Share the website with fellow students, job seekers, and researchers.
• Provide feedback to help us improve the platform.
• Donate to support hosting and development costs.

Your support helps us maintain and improve this tool for everyone.

For insights into how university salaries are set, visit:

• University of Michigan's official salary guidelines
• Michigan public sector compensation laws
• Higher education salary benchmarks

You can also check out our Sources page for more information on where we get our data.

If you have any questions, feedback, or correction requests, please reach out via our Contact Us page. We are happy to hear from users and continuously improve UMich Salary Explorer based on community input.