Ontario University Salaries (2025): U of T, McMaster, Western, Queen's and More

Based on the 2025 Public Sector Salary Disclosure · 30,975 university employees paid a salary of $100,000 or more across 32 institutions

Ontario's universities put more than thirty thousand names on the Sunshine List — one of its largest sectors, though well behind school boards, municipalities and hospitals. In 2025, 30,975 university employees were paid a salary of $100,000 or more, for a combined $5.12B in salary alone. The average disclosed salary was $165,197 and the median $151,306. Ontario discloses salary and taxable benefits separately; this site ranks by salary, and this page does the same, with benefits shown beside each figure.

University Of Toronto alone accounts for 7,392 of those people — 24% of the sector — at an average of $171,936. Among universities with at least 100 people disclosed, the highest average salary is at Queen's University ($174,654) and the lowest at Ontario College Of Art And Design University ($136,044).

The highest university salary on the 2025 list belongs to Julian Birkinshaw, Dean, Ivey Business School/Professor, at University Of Western Ontario, at $656,640. The top of the university list is dominated by business-school professors, joined by medical deans and clinician-scientists — the titles are disclosed, so each row below says what it is.

Top 25 University Salaries in Ontario (2025)

Ranked by salary. Click a name for that person's full disclosure history.

What Professors Earn

The disclosure's titles are the universities' own, so the same rank appears under several spellings (and in French at the bilingual universities), but the pattern is clear: in 2025 the 3,452 people titled simply “Professor” averaged $213,057, the 3,292 associate professors $177,277, and the 1,871 assistant professors $143,974. The ten most common titles:

For the province-wide picture by role, see the professors and deans pages.

Every Ontario University on the Sunshine List (2025)

All 32 institutions in the Universities sector, by number of people disclosed. Ontario's colleges are a separate sector — see the Colleges page.

University Employees Disclosed by Year

How many university employees appeared on the list each year since the disclosure began. The $100,000 threshold has never been raised since 1996, so most of this growth is ordinary salary progression carrying faculty across a fixed line rather than hiring — our 30 years of growth article works through what the frozen threshold does to the list.

About the Disclosure

Ontario's Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act (1996) requires universities, along with the rest of the broader public sector, to publish the name, position, salary and taxable benefits of every employee paid $100,000 or more in a calendar year. The salary figure is what was paid in the year — it can include retroactive pay, stipends for administrative roles, and overload teaching, which is why a dean or a clinician-scientist can appear well above the rank's usual range. Employer pension contributions are not included.

Related: Ontario school board salaries · Hospital CEO salaries