THIS week thousands of students across the country will be taking party in demonstrations against the shocking levels of pay inequality at UK universities.
Research by the Young Greens, the youth branch of the Green Party, has found that, on average, the lowest paid workers in the UK’s publically funded higher education sector would have to work 19 years just to earn the annual salary of the head of their university.
Alarmingly the report revealed that whilst over £225 million is spent every year on higher education executive pay, over 6,700 workers at universities across the country are paid less than the Living Wage – the minimum needed for the average person to support themselves.
Beginning on March 17 a series of protests, organised by the Young Greens, will be taking place on campuses up and down the country to highlight these gross wage disparities. The demonstrations will culminate in a large gathering outside Imperial College, London on Friday 21 March – the university with the worst pay ratio in the country.
Charlene Concepcion, Co-Chair of the London Young Greens, said:
“While students are being saddled with debts and workers across the country are continuing to struggle on poverty pay it is galling to see how the heads of our universities continue to line their pockets and those of their colleagues. Education should be for everyone and our foremost educational establishments should represent that spirit of fairness and public service.
“In line with Green party policy, we’re calling on universities to pledge that, as a minimum, all their staff will be paid the Living Wage – a wage they can build a life-around. We also want to see them move towards a fairer pay ratio where no one is paid more than ten times the wage of the lowest earner.”
The demonstration at Imperial College will begin at 13.00 on Friday 21 March and will take place outside the Rector’s Office in South Kensington.