Data from 821 colleges and universities were used to examine the determinants of the degree of wage dispersion in a set of more than 70 high‐level university positions. Salary dispersion was positively related to the amount of dispersion in job tenure, private control, and type of institution (two‐year college, four‐year college, or university). Salary dispersion was negatively related to the proportion of administrative positions filled by insiders and to homogeneity in gender composition. The number of administrative positions (an index of the degree of specialization) increases dispersion when the positions were of a general administrative nature but decreased dispersion when position proliferation was related to the core activities of teaching and res