In an idle moment between doing hard sums I wondered just how badly my pay has been eroded since I started working in UK higher education. I am currently on point 49 of the national pay spine, paid £61,823 per annum from this month. I started working in the UK in 2000, before the national pay spine was introduced in 2003. The original points on the spine are available in the framework agreement. Using an inflation calculator to adjust August 2003 figures for RPI, I find that point 40 in 2003, £32,462, is the equivalent of £61,351 today, quite close to today’s point 49. Roughly speaking, in financial terms, I have not been promoted.
You might like to try putting your own numbers in to see how badly our employers have ripped us off.
Michael Carley on UCU HEC 