The Value of Tenure in Higher Education

Abstract

Our findings indicate that tenure has an important impact on job satisfaction in academia, depending to some extent on the type of academic institution at which one is employed. We estimate its monetary value by determining the additional income needed to keep job satisfaction constant if the benefit of tenure were taken away. Because income has a relatively modest effect on job satisfaction, the increase needed to offset the loss of tenure is quite large. Thus, it would be difficult to compensate for the decrease in job satisfaction if tenure were unilaterally abolished by an institution or educational system.