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Let's say an associate professor of Math makes 120k per year USD in a United States university and takes an affiliate professor position in the Quantitative Biology department. Would they get additional salary for doing so, or is it simply more responsibility for no incremental salary, kind of like service work?

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  • I assume you mean at the same university. Yes?
    – Buffy
    Commented Apr 26, 2020 at 18:27
  • @Buffy yes same university
    – user123285
    Commented Apr 26, 2020 at 18:41
  • Then I think the answer of Dan Romik is excellent.
    – Buffy
    Commented Apr 26, 2020 at 18:43

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I have never heard of a joint appointment in a second department being tied to a salary increase. It’s possible that in some rare situations such an increase will be negotiated as part of the deal for a professor to take on a joint appointment, but generically, the answer to the title question is “no”.

On the other hand, the answer to “or is it simply more responsibility for no incremental salary, kind of like service work?” is also “no”. Being a joint appointee does not involve “more responsibility”, rather it’s more accurate to describe it as a shift in responsibilities. Professors without a joint appointment already have a full time job, so they cannot increase their responsibilities (at least in a formal sense, and to a large extent also in a practical sense). If a professor takes on a joint appointment in another department, it’s likely because the professor simply likes the idea of being involved in the other department because their interests are aligned with that move, in the sense that the professor wants to have collaborations with other people in that department, wants to advise students in that department, wants to teach courses offered by that department, or similar things. But they had a full time job before the change in appointments, and they have a full time job after the change in appointments, so the total amount of work they are expected to do overall does not change.

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    Also the synergy that might come from such work. Hopefully it extends beyond just teaching a course or two into some collaborative research.
    – Buffy
    Commented Apr 26, 2020 at 18:44
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It is probably taken as part of their contracted teaching load, but as you don’t have the details of that contract you won’t know for sure.

We had a professor from the maths dept teaching in our engineering dept...

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