Poverty pay at Unis

A new report released by the National Union of Students and UNISON has revealed that 57 percent of UK universities pay their employees below the standard living wage.

A living wage is defined as the amount an individual needs to cover basic living costs. It is an informal benchmark that cannot be legally enforced, unlike national minimum pay set by the chancellor of the exchequer.

The standard living wage is currently set at £8.55 an hour in London and £7.45 an hour in the rest of the UK, including Coventry and Warwickshire.

As of last year the University of Warwick was paying two of its employees at the apprentice rate, which was less than the national living wage – £7.20 an hour. No employees were paid at exactly minimum wage.

Of those who responded to the survey by the NUS and UNISON, five universities in the UK had more than 20 percent of their staff being paid less than the living wage.

Universities in the East Midlands and South West had the highest number of staff working below the living wage, while the number at universities in the North West and Scotland was relatively low.

Surprisingly, London had the lowest number of institutions paying less than the living wage. As a regional average, the lowest paid staff in London institutions earned £1.23 above living wage – the highest average in the country.

London also has thirteen living wage accredited institutions. This means the university pays all its workers at or above the living wage. This status has been accredited to 17 universities in the UK.

Warwick does not currently hold this status. UNISON and the NUS have called for more universities to attempt to achieve this accreditation to demonstrate their commitment to paying a fair living wage to employees.

The report also raised the problem of outside contractors being paid less than living wage. Information on this was not held by the University.