Some California community college instructors earn over $340K working at multiple campuses

CalMatters analyzed 2024 payroll data from the California Community Colleges system and found 72 instructors who worked at five or more community college districts or university campuses across the state, including California State University and University of California campuses.

Among these instructors, 10 earned more than $343,000 in 2024, an amount comparable to the median salary of a community college president or chancellor, according to CalMatters' report.

The analysis revealed that community college districts operate independently and do not track instructors' full course loads or employment across multiple districts, making it difficult to monitor how many classes an instructor teaches.

One top earner was listed as teaching at least 69 course sections across nine community college districts, highlighting the extent of multi-campus employment among some instructors.

CalMatters obtained the payroll data through Transparent California, a nonpartisan think tank that acquired the information via public records requests and then normalized and verified the data using algorithms and reporter confirmation.