During his career, he was chairman of the sociology department at Vanderbilt University from 1971 to 1975. He was twice chairman of the sociology department at Michigan from 1981 to 1986 and again from 1990 to 1992. He was a professor of sociology, social work, and business administration at the University of Michigan, where he taught from 1977, eventually holding a position of Distinguished Senior Faculty Lecturer in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; in 2001 he became a professor emeritus. In the period 1997-2001 he also was a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona. In 2002 he was a Visiting Professor at the University of California, San Diego. In 2007-2008 he was a Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology at University of California, Irvine. In 2010, Mayer returned to Vanderbilt University to deliver the inaugural lecture in the Department of Sociology's Distinguished Social Movement Scholar Lecture Series.