{"id":39826,"date":"2017-07-21T15:11:48","date_gmt":"2017-07-21T22:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=39826"},"modified":"2017-07-21T15:11:48","modified_gmt":"2017-07-21T22:11:48","slug":"academics-paid-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/academics-paid-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Are academics paid too much?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nThe BBC salaries report has prompted me to do something that I’ve had in mind for quite some time.<\/p>\n

So here it is: my salary is \u00a348,327.<\/p>\n

I am 42, and have had a full-time academic job since 2008, when I was 32. Before that, I took a long time to do a master\u2019s and a PhD, and taught as an hourly paid lecturer in six different subject areas for eight years. When things were tough, I did some supply teaching, which is why I admire teachers so much and feel so guilty about my behaviour in school. Well, some of it anyway. I also had a \u00a36,000 annual scholarship to do my PhD.<\/p>\n

If you think 32 is late, the generations of academics behind me have it far worse. Being on a selection panel for an entry-level lecturing job was shaming: every single applicant had achieved more in terms of research, while doing huge amounts of teaching, while\u00a0never<\/i>\u00a0having had a full-time job, a permanent job, or even a full-year job.<\/p>\n

Salaries are not as transparent as they look either. Some academics negotiate, while others aren\u2019t aware that it\u2019s possible, and there are ethnic and gendered aspects to this. I was once sitting next to a colleague who was offered a proper contract after working with us for years. To his enormous credit, the associate dean on the end of the phone talked her into accepting a higher salary than was technically on offer.<\/p>\n

I was also lucky. I\u2019d taught for years in so many areas before the possibility of a part-time job came up that I quaveringly asked whether my length of service might justify making me a senior lecturer, and the panel agreed. I doubt that this would ever happen now.<\/p>\n

How do I feel about my salary? I feel rich. The average UK salary last year was \u00a327,600. I live in a very poor area, so the gap is far wider. I have benefited from being middle class, white and male: lacking any one of these characteristics would result in a sharp drop: lacking all three dramatically reduces earning potential.<\/p>\n

I do have other feelings about my salary, and they\u2019re mostly comparative. I work in a sector where managements work very hard to make sure that academic salaries fall behind while their own converge with industry. That annoys me.<\/p>\n

I feel that the long years of earning little or nothing and having no job security simply to acquire the qualifications and experience needed should be reflected in academic salaries.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also aware that this is my peak salary: the elevator stopped long ago, and insecurity is once more afoot.<\/p>\n

I work hard to remind myself that my salary is way in excess of my neighbours and what most of my students will get, and that I don\u2019t even have a family to support. I mitigate the guilt by happily paying every tax that I can, and by making sure that those earning less than me never buy the coffees: that\u2019s how it was when I had no money, and I\u2019m just passing it on.<\/p>\n

I also feel that I work hard for my salary. I have contracted hours, and they\u2019re officially exceeded by a significant amount every year, and unofficially exceeded by even more. Then there\u2019s the emotional labour involved in this kind of work: we don\u2019t just teach and write, we provide intellectual, cultural and emotional support to students and colleagues in ways that can\u2019t be quantified. The strong bonds between us means that there\u2019s a culture of overwork that is never acknowledged.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true, however, that within a neoliberalised social system, being a lecturer in English literature and a researcher in Welsh literature is a luxury good. It shouldn\u2019t be, but it is.<\/p>\n

So there we are. That\u2019s what I earn. I\u2019m lucky to work in a sector with a national pay bargaining unit, and resigned to the ever-widening gap between my colleagues and our overseers.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m conscious of the class, racial and gender bonus included in my salary. I don\u2019t aspire to riches, simply to security. I spend my money on books and train travel, and lust over\u00a0extremely expensive bikes<\/a>\u00a0that I\u2019ll never be able to afford. I\u2019d happily pay more tax and see a more level salary landscape, but I also think that there are a lot of people taking home a lot more tax for doing less useful work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BBC salaries report has prompted me to do something that I’ve had in mind for quite some time. So here it is: my salary is \u00a348,327. I am 42, and have had a full-time academic job since 2008, when I was 32. Before that, I took a long time to do a master\u2019s and […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":39827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[22683],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-39826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-salaries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre academics paid too much? - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/academics-paid-much\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are academics paid too much? - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The BBC salaries report has prompted me to do something that I’ve had in mind for quite some time. 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