The Sad Salary Situation for Illinois Junior College Baseball Coaches

This post discusses the inequity of pay for junior college baseball coaches in Illinois.  Are the baseball coaches at Illinois junior colleges half as good as the baseball coaches in all other states?  According to the salary information provided by the Office of Postsecondary Education, baseball coaches salary, and apparently by the administrators at Illinois junior colleges, the answer seems to be yes, they are only half as good.

We researched the salary data from 2008 through 2012, provided by the U.S. Department of Education, on Illinois junior college head and assistant baseball coaches, their annual salaries against all of the other states that have NJCAA Division I, II, or III baseball.


Here is some of the 2012 data that we looked at:


First for Head Coaching positions - 

• Illinois only has 5 full time head coaches in 2012 where as there are 91 in the other NJCAA states.
• The 2012 average annual salary for head baseball coaches in Illinois $10,212 where as the average in all other states is $19,968.  As you can see, Illinois head coaches are paid about 50% less than in all other NJCAA states.
• Illinois head coaches also have to do more work as the average number of assistant coaches in Illinois is at 1.74 and all other states average closer to 2.

Next, Assistant Baseball Coaches -

• There are zero full time assistant coaches in Illinois where as other NJCAA states have 42.
• The annual salary for assistant baseball coaches at NJCAA schools was $3,925 in 2012 verses $8,554 in all other NJCAA states, that is 45.8%!
• Other NJCAA states offer 17% of assistant coaches full time employment where Illinois junior colleges offer only 4% of assistant coaches this opportunity.
• Illinois assistant coaches only earned $248 per participant (player) for the entire season where as all other NJCAA junior college states earned over $500 per participant (which is more than the head coaches in Illinois earn).

The total number of participants (baseball players) has increased 4.7% from 2008 to 2012.  There are more student-athletes playing baseball at community colleges in Illinois.  This means more tuition, more state Base Operating Grants, more federal funding.


It is easy to see but hard to understand why the coaches in Illinois are paid only half of what other NJCAA states are paying baseball baseball coaches.