14 The pattern of relationships between rank and salary seen in past years continues, where higher rank is associated with higher average years of experience and a higher salary. 6,128 of the 9,824 librarians in ARL university member libraries occupy a rank within these three most commonly found ranking systems, and the largest number of professionals (3,300) occupies a rank in a four‐step rank structure. Figure 4 AVERAGE SALARIES AND AVERAGE YEARS OF EXPERIENCE OF LIBRARY PROFESSIONALS IN LIBRARIES WITH THREE, FOUR, AND FIVE STEP RANK STRUCTURES FY 2006‐07 Three‐Step Four‐Step Five‐Step Salary Experience Salary Experience Salary Experience Librarian 1 $51,076 8.8 $48,548 8.6 $49,214 8.2 Librarian 2 60,380 16.7 51,555 10.5 56,738 13.9 Librarian 3 78,750 24.9 65,163 20.3 64,177 18.7 Librarian 4 79,979 26.5 78,192 23.8 Librarian 5 91,897 27.3 No. of Staff 1,375 3,300 1,453 INFLATION EFFECT Tables 2 and 6 reveal changes in beginning professional and median salaries, as well as changes in the U.S. Bureau of Labor’s Cost of Living Index (CPI‐U) for university and nonuniversity research libraries. Table 3 is similar to Table 2, but reports data only on U.S. libraries. Table 4 shows trend data for Canadian libraries and compares them to the Canadian Consumer Price Index changes. Tables 2, 3, and 4 include law and medical library staff in ARL university libraries. All tables indicate that the purchasing power of professionals working in ARL libraries is keeping up with inflation. For the first time in ten years, the median U.S. salary has been exceeded by the median Canadian salary converted to U.S. dollars. The median salary for all ARL university libraries was $59,648 in 2006‐07 for U.S. libraries only it was $57,173 and for Canadian libraries converted into U.S. dollars it was $63,112, or a median of $73,392 Canadian dollars. In addition to the gains made by the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar, Canadian salaries also increased sharply when denominated in Canadian dollars, by 4% (Table 4), while U.S. salaries increased 3.7% (Table 3). The median salary for combined U.S. and Canadian university libraries increased 4.5% (Table 2) At the same time, the U.S. Consumer Price Index increased 4.1% in the last year and the Canadian Consumer Price Index increased 2.4%. Beginning salaries in the university sector continue to increase at a steady rate. The median beginning salary in ARL university libraries increased to $40,000 this 5.5% increase is more than doubles the 2.5% increase reported in 2005‐06. After an 11.2% jump in 2005‐06, the median beginning salary for ARL nonuniversity research libraries increased almost as much again, by 10.6% to $42,765. Table 6 reveals that the median salary for nonuniversity staff has increased about 5.3% since 2005‐06, to $80,124.